Day 20
Day By Day Notes From The Road
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This document updated July 17th, 2004
Rapid City South Dakota - Rest Day
Photos:
On our rest day Erwin snuck a trip to Mt.Rushmore while Lucija opted for the "sleep in" option.
Our favorite thing to do on rest days - eat lunch sitting down at a table! Here we found a great brew house that served up buffalo burgers and a delicious tuna steak Cesar salad.
By Erwin:
Maybe at the rest day it is time for a little reflection on the psychology of a long ride like this. One puzzle is the answer to the famous question: are we having fun yet? The short (but incomplete) answer is: it doesn't get any better! The long answer, however, is more complicated.
So far, the ride has made me very happy, even if I am not always having fun. The first couple of weeks were very hard and almost every day the last 30 miles were definitely not fun. Still, to balance those occasional moments of pretty intense misery, the ride offers the continual reward of becoming physically and mentally stronger by achieving something grand.
But how grand is the big ride? The devil's advocate in me claims that riding across the US may be hard and romantic, but serves very little purpose. Aside from the fact that the ride has raised $260k toward helping people with lung disease, achieving an audacious goal serves my personal need for self-definition.
I feel intensely relaxed now because I have been able to release aggression daily for three weeks. Also, I feel proud and self-assured because I have been able to sustain this long term commitment.
Taking the argument one step further; The short moments of biking misery provide long term mental balance because each crisis overcome creates long-term confidence.