the unexpected happens

Yesterday as I rode up a hill, a rider came down on the same side. No helmet and on the wrong side of the road going downhill... We avoided a collision, but I couldn't help but wonder why someone would do that with traffic on the road.

Where was I? Riding around downtown Des Moines, Iowa. A little off route, you might wonder. How did I get from Cedar City, Utah to Iowa? I spent one day and ten hours on a Greyhound bus. Now that was interesting. There was a lot of thought but not a lot of time put into this decision to postpone the rest of the trip. Many factors were involved in this very quick decision. One was the weather - the day of our ride from Kanab, Utah to Zion National Park, it was 111 degrees. Heatstroke hot! Climbing mountains in blazing heat and suffering the dryness of the desert air while fighting a strong headwind was exhausting and very quickly demoralizing. I found that I was dragging myself along instead of riding with the enthusiasm that was constant at the start of my journey. So I mailed Camille and my panniers back to Seattle and hopped on a bus. I'd never been on a bus where the driver threatened to throw people off the bus and leave them by the side of the road before, but it was certainly an educational experience! I arrived in Des Moines on June 19th, tired and hungry. I've thoroughly enjoyed spending lots of quality time with my relatives on and off a bicycle!

At the start of my journey, I had some deep questions to ponder. Now I feel like I have more questions than when I started. Unexpected.