lessons learned from logan on

these are a few of the things I learned last weekend, perhaps but not necessarily in order of importance:

if I lived in central-to-eastern wyoming I would not have to own a hair straightener.
on the way home the bike rack on top of our car came loose, and I stood outside for the 5-10 minutes it took john to fix it. I probably expended about 150 calories in those few minutes just by trying to remain upright, and my hair was whipped around so savagely that it lost every idea of ever having a curly thought.


I am not a cat 5 guy. I am not even a guy.
each time they all whipped past me I felt sorrow, envy, and shame. until I finally accepted the inevitable. see above bolded statements.


ibuprofen helps.
I took some at montpelier, and when it kicked in life got better. then, of course, the question just became when can I have more? the answer was alpine, and it helped that time, as well. I wish I'd invented the darn stuff.


almost all riders drink coke and mountain dew at the last supported fuel stops.
this fact was told me by john, who observed just about every cyclist shouting where's my coke? mountain dew! now! or some variant of the aforementioned at the last 2 stops. can you say caffeine? can you say sugar? can you say please give me something that will help keep me going?


I am fallible.
I already knew this, so I suppose it was just reinforced. and this is a good lesson, I suppose, for any one of us to experience. in the end, this is how we gain strength, right?

surface tattoos fade, but true tattoos run deep.
this year the lotoja group gave each of us registered riders a "tat", a black ink lotoja cyclist stamped on the back of our calf. I registered early, thursday night before the saturday ride, and my cyclist was pretty well faded by the beginning of the ride.
as well, those times I've tattooed faith on my knuckles, it has faded fairly quickly.
but there may as well be a permanently inked cyclist on my calf, and a permanently inked faith on my knuckles, because they are both deep and true parts of me. sweat, showers, wind, pain, doubt, and fallibility do not erase them, though they may fade and become difficult to see with the naked, human eye.
the deep and true spiritual eye will always see them, however.
we all have our own permanent and true tattoos, and once we learn to truly incorporate (to take into the body) them, whether they are visible on the surface or not, out journeys ease, become simpler, and become more true.

may your tattoos fill you with joy, peace and a deeper understanding of yourself.