1,000 miles

I was on vacation this past week. I didn't have any vacation type trips planned for the year, so I figured I might as well use the paid days I have while I can. I planned to clean the house, finish some projects I've been meaning to do... that sort of thing. But my main goal was to ride up to 1,000 miles on my bike (my goal for the year.) I had about 200 miles to go and 9 days to do it in. It seemed very do-able. I have friends who have ridden over 3,000 miles this year, so it can't be that hard right? I ended up pushing myself and doing 30+ miles a couple of days, which made me quite sore and tired and very unmotivated to cook dinner let alone clean the bathroom. The hard work really paid off because I only had 17.3 miles to go on my ride today, which was the last day of my vacation. It had rained at least a couple inches the day before. I don't like riding in the rain, I will if I have to, but I didn't... which was ok, I needed the break. So I went to my usual starting point to find that the road was very flooded. Being a scenic road through a flood plain that sort of thing happens. I thought maybe I could ride through the lower areas, but when I saw a group of ducks swimming over the road I thought better of it. At 8:30 in the morning it was very quiet and there was a bit of a fog hanging in the valley that made everything look so serene. I wish I had a camera with me. I imagined that this is what the world would look like if humans no longer existed. But anyway, I got onto a road that wasn't flooded and had one of the most pleasurable solo rides in my life. I was in no hurry I just rode along enjoying the view. Every rider or runner I saw seemed as happy as I was. When I reached 17.3 miles I felt like thrusting my arms in the air and yelling... but I probably would have gotten hit by a car. At that moment I was passing by a church and I thought to myself, "This is what church should be like...."