two hundred seventy nine

 THE FINAL PIECE IS ME!

My bike is ready, in fact it is beyond ready. I have food, clothing and shelter strapped to a tough and tested bicycle. I actually have water and four days of food on board. 

Now as for me, I have a new knee, an extra 20 pounds and almost ten years of limited riding since my last long ride. Every long journey starts with one turn of the crank. 

For the last couple of weeks I have taken a daily ten mile ride around the neighborhood. The bike was unloaded but the basic bike weighs over 30 pounds. Today I loaded it with full panniers and did another ten. 

I'm staring down the barrel of seventy years old so I feared my sight, hearing and balance would be an issue. I have to be realistic about these things and to my pleasant surprise I'm ready to rumble.

My body is weak, my lungs aren't the same and my eye site doesn't work well at night. My muscle memory and riding habits are still strong, so this gives me confidence that I simply need to focus on conditioning.

The extra weight of my fat ass and loaded bike does require a great deal of torque to launch away from a stop light. My new knee passed the test. It gets stiff and the muscles around it hurt but it goes away fairly quickly.

I have been in shape most of my life but this knee has taken a toll over the years. I'm looking forward to getting past the limitations of the bone to bone pain. That has been a real struggle on my past trips.

I ate Ibuprofen by the fist fulls for years and constantly while I was on the road. I have not taken any for months now. 

Getting started was really hard but now that I have the window is opening. Training sucks but I have the gear and the vision, now I just need me.