Google Maps has become my new go-to website – I enter general destination points, then start yanking and tugging on each section of the route to find smaller backroads I can take to keep myself off major thoroughfares as best I can. I plotted out my most epic ride to date – 65 miles, after I include the coming and going from my house!!
I cruised through town (much more comfortable the second time – familiarity breeds attempt), out busy 4 and 6 lane roads, ducked out Suck Creek Road for glimpses of the ambling Tennessee river, climbed up the twisties, out and over Prentice Cooper State Park, back into the twisties running down the other side of Signal Mountain.
I stopped at the prettiest little church at the foot of the hills for a bit of a breather. I remember the grizzled looking Harley guys riding by and waving out to me – it tickles me so!! Like I’m part of the club!! Lol. I of course get teased endlessly by Adam – he’s sure I’m all about the princess wave – little did I know there was a whole history to the motorcycle wave, cool, understated, standardized with just a touch of one’s own personal flair. Lmbo, seriously?!?!
The better part of the route was new to me – everything I do is about nudge, nudge, nudging out my comfort zone incrementally, in comfortably uncomfortable ways, feeling my confidence and competence grow in measures with each new stretch.
Pleased to have touched down back home, wary, but all in one piece, feeling the spread of my wings!!
Stretch: I keep pushing my mileage. Pulling off the road to let traffic go by. New route that I laid out for myself. Came through town at rush hour!!
Lessons: Find ways to minimize stress and have exit routes to keep stress low, like pulling off the road to let people pass by, so you feel no pressure to go faster than what you’re comfortable with – ride your own ride, no matter what you’re tackling in life.
Smarter-Not-Harder U 