Say Yes

In improv, one important trick to making a good scene with someone else is to always say 'yes.'  It keeps the scene moving, the action flowing, the energy high.  Saying 'no,' is a stop sign, a flat tire.

The same is true in life, which in all ways is one big improv scene.  I want this journey of mine to be full of surprises and interesting encounters, and saying yes despite internal objections (besides personal safety issues) helps accomplish this goal.  I realized this desire when I screwed up early on.  Somewhere in Massachusetts I stopped for water at a house with an English flag.  A pleasant woman with an English accent answered the door, and showed me where to fill my bottles.  She was one of those magical few that left the sheltering fortress of her door frame and came out to talk to me.  Kind, if a bit spacey, she offered me fruit as well.  Like a polite fool I declined and thanked her for the much needed gift of water.  Walking away, I kicked myself for turning down kindness.  I had to remind myself that she would not have offered if she wasn't happy to give.  I tend to not want to impose or cause a fuss with others, preferring to find my own way than bother someone else, doubting other's honest willingness to give/share time.

Many days and several states later, I was studying my maps in Virginia when two cyclists stopped to chat.  Their names were Dan and David, they lived in the nearby town of Ashland.  After hearing my plans they invited me for a beer after they finished their ride.  This time I accepted.  Dan told me of a place in town called Ashland Coffee and Tea, and we went our separate ways.  Hours later we reconnected, and after a beer and great conversation, they took me out to dinner where Dan treated me and David, and we shared stories of cycling and beyond.  They were both awesome guys who knew everyone in town.  I am constantly astonished and grateful about how open some people are to share their lives, and connect even if only for a few hours.  We had fun, it kept all of our plots interesting and new, and it's all because we kept ourselves in the yes-space.  This was the first time I really interacted with locals for longer than it takes to fill up water, and I hope it happens much more.

I'm off the Adventure Cycling route now, making my own way over to Asheville, NC.  I've decided to not take the Blue Ridge Parkway the whole way over, remembering that the Blue Ridge contains some massive hills.

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So far I have gone 1124.0 miles (over 1000!) and am writing this at the Kernersville Branch Library in North Carolina.

Highlights of the last few days:

• Meeting up with my friend Elena Malkov in Richmond, VA
• Finding myself back in blackberry country.
• Sending off my sleeping bag and rain gear in order to lose weight an reclaim pannier space.
• Hopping a fence to get into a waste water treatment area after Google Maps took me 10 miles down a no-outlet trail, then having to quickly unload my bike and push everything under a chain link fence with barbed wire on top in order to get out to the road.  Note to self: don't trust google maps' bike routes.
• Darklight: finding a whole crate of unripe peaches in a dumpster and only being able to take a few.  If only my mom had been around, she would have a field day canning them.

For those of my relatives who have expressed concern that I will waste away on this trip, I just measured myself on the scale that they oddly enough have in this library and I have neither gained nor lost a single pound.

I didn't really take any action shots this time around, but here are a few animal close-ups on trail.