Our Next Bike Adventure-Here We Come!

The air is soft. There are swirling little eddies of cool breeze that lap at me and the warm sun seems to coax suppleness from my skin. I had big plans for today, but they are not happening. It is my first day off in what seems like forever. Lighthouse Bikes is hopping, and I have been happily leading tours, changing flats and managing the business nonstop. My book “Changing Gears” is doing well, and I have had a lot of fun giving book talks and reliving Oakley and my bicycle adventure across the United States, but all this has left me a bit exhausted. So today, instead of the big bicycle adventure I had planned, I am tootling around my backyard-harvesting broccoli, scratching my dogs ears and finding that just about anything else seems to be too much effort-except daydreaming-but I am daydreaming big.

Once again I am throwing my hat over the wall and announcing my next adventure to the world at large. This kind of commitment and the threat of public humiliation works for me-it is very motivating. It is not that I don’t yearn for these adventures, it is that without a commitment, life can get in the way-far too easily.

So, here it goes. This coming January, I am hoping to bicycle from Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chili. We will cross South America from East to West, first pedaling through the Pampas and then hitting the Andes Mountains when our legs are good and strong. I hear it is bafflingly beautiful. And this time, I hope to have a new traveling partner-my oldest son Finn.

He is exactly half my age and he started this whole adventure-parenting thing when he popped into this world 26 years ago. I took him on endless Forced Family Fun expeditions when he was little and I have been waiting for a chance to adventure with him as an adult forever, but he has been too busy. He is hardy, game, competent, compassionate and a great companion. I would love him even if he weren’t my son.

I spoke with Finn about this idea for the first time yesterday and, much to my delight, his eyes lit up and he grinned the same grin he has had since he was a child-it belies a little embarrassment that his excitement has broken through and has shown even when he is trying to be sanguine. He thinks he might be able to take the three-weeks or so off from work that will be necessary complete the route, and if he starts saving now…I just about did a back flip.

Can we pull this off? I think so. I hope so. We will seriously need to brush up on our Spanish and get our legs and bikes in shape. But what better things do I have to do this fall and what an incredible opportunity to share with my son? Will this chance ever come again?

It will be windy, the Andes will be tall, it will rain and we will ache, we will probably get on each other’s last nerve, but the people we will meet and the things we will see and the learning our adventure will bring will be worth every inch. I am over the top excited to hit the trail again.

But, not today. Today, I sit in my backyard and lallygag. Maybe I will put some laundry away-probably not. Maybe I will bike around the island or eat a peach. The air is too sweet to do much else.