Last weekend we met at large beautiful house on Lake Keowee, north of Greeneville SC. The house belonged to the son of one of the women. (Finally, someone with a prosperous offspring.) My only condition for attending each year, is that I can bring my bike and ride it all I want. With less than 4 weeks to prepare for Ride Through the Free World, no way to miss a weekend of training.
This was great location for me. The lake is on the edge of the mountains and mountain miles, once you are there, are always efficient training. I knew nothing of the area so I Googled "Map my Ride", a site that illustrates a number of rides, distances, topography etc at any location you enter. I easily found one heading up to the mountains on highway 130, through the top of South Carolina and into North Carolina. The road had a nice surface and there was very little traffic. No rider likes traffic, but this road was so sparsely traveled, I was a little nervous about getting help if a problem occurred. I headed straight North and pretty much straight up. It was a little over 30 miles to Lake Toxaway, NC and it took 3 hours to get there, which sounds pitiful. It was nonethless, a confidence booster to cross a state line, considering I will need to cross about ten on the big trip.When I arrived at Lake Toxaway I was wasted. I had to take a long break and I consumed more than a few recently baked chocolate chip cookies I purchased at an attractive country store. Most of the customers were white water enthusiasts and anxious to exchange stories with me and their like minded fellow shoppers. The ride back was a lot faster of course, though I did not go all out since I was alone and did not know the descents. I felt much better at the end of the ride than at geographical middle.
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| My bike at waterfall along the way (when it is just us, the bike and I always argue who will take picture of whom at photo opts. It usually turns out this way) |
I was a bit concerned that my solitary training would annoy my wife or some of the group, but by now, this is expected. Over the years there has been some stress in the marriage related to this issue. The next day for instance, I repeated most of the first day's ride, leaving the house before anyone was up, returning just as everyone was loading up to leave. This is what I call barely acceptable behavior. My advice to riders is to find the line you can not cross, then live on that edge.
I have been reading Edward O Wilson lately. He is the social/evolutionary biologist at Harvard famous for his study on ants and his comparisons of ant and humans culture. For years, on long bike rides, I have enjoyed defending my own theories on the evolution of successful cultures. These theories involve no scientific research, only wild speculation, based solely on my observations. Freud did this. Why can't I? A typical argument I enjoy defending, is that it is evolutionarily advantageous for women not to get along with their mothers. In primitive cultures, had they coexisted well, they would have hung around and exhausted the food sources and perhaps died out. If a different group had the trait of mother- daughter conflict at puberty, likely the young woman would hook up with someone unacceptable, leave, perhaps bringing along a few other like minded couples. With new and plentiful food sources for the hunter gatherers, she would then survive, procreate and pass on the female conflict gene. This a group trait involving both the mother and the daughter. Wilson, perhaps being in the back of the pack on some of these bike rides and eavesdropping on the gripping conversation at the front of the pack, is now moving away from his claims on the importance of kin selection (individuals helping themselves or relatives to pass on their genes) to the advantages of traits beneficial to the group.
I truly admire an enjoy each of these women and also everyone of the husbands. Over the weekend they had their own stimulating agenda. They toured the BMW plant and hiked into a long cave, blasted with dynamite by the railroad in the 19th century, in a futile attempt to get through a mountain. Back at the house there were boat rides, outstanding meals and some high school era musical hits on the stereo.There is something very satisfying in regularly seeing the survival of this Leon County High School group. It is a microcosm on the success of the group which just seems more right, at least more attractive, than the survival of the individual. I look forward to our gathering next year on the Gulf Coast, and yes, I will bring the bike.
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| The High School Girls (Barely Legal) |
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