Day 6: In Montreal

I became very aware of my preoccupation with measuring my progress against percieved goals over the course of this trip.

Today I got lost a few times and felt stressed about not being as far along as I thought I needed to be. I'm starting to realize that this is stupid. I have no idea what I'm doing, and as I fumble along the way and waste time due to my ignorance, I'm slowly making up for it with the increased ability I'm developing along the way.

When I was 16 I rode my bike from Brantford to Hamilton and back, about 60km total. At that point I was a sleak, hormone driven machine of pure energy. I vividly remember that trip, and how much it hurt for the next two days. At the time I thought it was the most impressive physical feat I was capable of.

What I wondered today was - what would that 16 year old kid think if someone told him that a 20 year older, 50 pound heavier, drunken version of him would be doing almost double that distance everyday for six consecutive days and feeling pretty solid - solid enough to keep doing it for another 70 days?

Actually, he'd probably say 'that sounds about right.'  He was a pretty smart kid.

Back to the trip - I'm taking tomorrow off to have some fun in Montreal.  I'll be back on the road Monday.

 Highway 338 was not kind to Gracie.

Beautiful day having lunch by the St. Lawrence. Too bad it's still freakin' frozen! Winter needs to go away.