Day 254: I'm Sick Again. Aargh!

It sometimes feels like I’m catching a break, and then there are others like this morning when I feel like I’m being beaten down.

Late yesterday afternoon, and just before leaving a friend’s birthday party, I started feeling a scratchy throat, and dry eyes. By the end of the night I was losing my voice, and when I woke up this morning I sounded like Henry Kissinger after a night of smoking Cuban cigars (I guess that they're selling sex too?)! I even frightened Tugboat when I called him this morning, which resulted in his going onto guard dog duty and barking at everything under the sun.

I sent out word about my illness to a few friends this morning. I wanted to let my friends at the Knolls know that I’d be missing another meeting, and another friend know that I’d not be meeting up with him in Point Reyes. What a mess, and on top of that, I was feeling really sick. It’s been a long time since a cold has manifested so quickly. My hope is that this one will pass just as quickly as it came on, as opposed to the last one that took its sweet time getting out of my body.

One of my friends, “C,” said that she’d help me by pacing me on a long and mellow tour of the local bike paths today. That was just what I needed. I really didn’t want to ride alone today, and in spite of my legs telling me to go, go, go she kept me throttled back as we rode mostly on the old railroad right away.

At the entrance to the Alta tunnel, we stopped to discuss just how cool it would be to have the tunnel reopened so that the average Joe cyclist could ride from there to San Rafael with little or no effort. It just seems like such a no-brainer to me. I say, "Open the Tunnel."

From there we headed over to Sausalito where we began a really slow in odrer to tour of the water’s edge. I’ve done this before, and its fun. As my riding partner stated today, Sausalito is really divided into three sections, the waterfront community, the tourist spots on Bridgeway, and the affluent that live in the hills. These are very clear and divided lines.

We mostly rode around the waterfront areas, and they’re the most interesting to me. There are still real Hippies living there as squatters. Real Hippies to me are my brother’s age, and have kept to their mantra from the sixties. Anyway, there’s a lot to take in down there, and so much that you would never expect to find if you’re just driving down Bridgeway in a car. You see, when cycling you can go as fast, or as slow as you want, and by having that control you can see so much more than while driving in a car. Cars are Coffins, comes to mind as I write this, and it’s true to a degree. Cars take so much away from one’s life experiences.

Along the way we ran into “Infamous P,” and he rode with us for a while on our way to Sausalito. I miss hanging out with him, and it’s been my fault that we haven’t connected lately. I’ll change that. ;-)

We managed to ride for a couple of hours at a really low speed, and I hope that will help me to recover from this cold sooner than later. It looks like I have one more day of dry weather before the rains begin again, so wish me luck!

“C,” thanks for taking a casual touring cruise with me today. I appreciate the company, especially when I’m being a grumpy and sick cyclist.