it's finally happening

Whoa, we're on the bike trip.



We started on Tuesday, August 19th in New Roads, Louisiana. It was an eventful first day. We huddled in a ditch by the side of the road trying to wait out a rain storm. It never stopped raining, though, so we biked on to a town that offers free camping in one of their public parks. It was at this campsite that I first encountered fire ants. I had heard of them before, but I guess I just thought all red ants were fire ants and they weren't that big of a deal. But no, fire ants attacked one of my feet and it hurt. Not a whole bunch, but more than an ant bite should. The real surprise came the next day, though, when these red pimple-looking bumps showed up all over my foot. Dave told me they act like poison ivy, in that the poison spreads when the bumps are opened.

It's been pretty, though. We followed the levies down the Mississippi for most of the first day. We've seen alot of fields and some forested areas.

I'm still a little shell shocked. Every day (more like a couple times a day) I suddenly realize that I'm actually on the bike trip. It's happening. This is it. Which is kind of a mixed bag of emotions. I'm really excited that it's happening. No more saving up, working a job I knew wasn't right for me, putting off grad school and the GREs and all that. Whenever I got really stressed out with all that stuff I would tell myself I was doing it for the bike trip, it was only temporary. But now I'm on the bike trip, so when things get hard (and wet), I just have to deal with it. I don't have any magic phrase to repeat to myself. Also, I expected the bike trip to be this incredible journey, and I think it will be. But it takes awhile to get out of the normal daily routine mindset. I've spent the last three days pedalling and eating and walking through tiny grocery stores looking for the bathroom. That's it. I like it, but it's going to take some getting used to.