"The Trip"

I had no doubt the trip would teach me patience.
A water tower in the distance,
The sign of a town on the plains,
Confirmed that.
An hour later, it seemed no closer.

After all,
Even the leaves falling from the trees
Could outrun me,
Yet they never dared travel so far
Or contemplate their journey.

I expected a physical challenge,
But found only a tribute
To the magnificence of our bodies.
(And a sober reminder of how immature, by comparison,
Are the technologies we create ourselves.)

I learned from the weather.
The rain kept no schedule and taught me to do likewise.
Even the dreaded headwind only taught me that I had become
Stronger than I ever imagined,
As centuries continued to roll by.

You are conspicuous.
People look at you, wonder about you,
And search desperately for an excuse to talk to you,
Just to be a part of the trip.
Then they see your bike, brimming with excuses.

You share dreams, hopes, and aspirations,
And you find that you are not alone.
In fact, you are less alone than you have ever been,
And you cannot understand
How that is possible.

So you meet new friends at every turn.
Some for an hour;
Some for a lifetime.
Some even ride with you
Across the country.

Songs that used to come from a radio
Now come from the mouth of a friend.
Between us all, we can remember two lines,
Maybe three,
So that will have to do.

As I approach the crest of a hill,
A single off-key line from behind me,
That I have heard
A hundred times today already,
Inspires me to the top.

And I know it is not the song that has inspired me.
And I know it is not just the hill that I have crested.