Memories of blank mental moments

My trip so far
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Just passed Half Moon Bay, wild camping place, 13-11-2002.

I leave Pete`s house late morning following the road behind his house that will bring me to Highway Number One, the main road between Santa Cruz and San Fransisco.

you`ll sit in front of your tent under a moon lit sky, stars looking down on you like the yes of the Gods

Once again I`m on my own, back on my cycle, my legs going up and down the pedals all day while my mind goes inside its own gary mass that inhabits the top of my skull and controls my body, my mental processes and makes me who I am.

When one cycles all day there is not much for the mind to do. Controlling my main leg muscles is easy work and probably takes only a fraction of what the human mind is capable of.

One will go through a lot of mental stuff like frustations suffered before you set out on a cycle trip, your love life and things to do once the trip is over, long forgotten and ignored memories will come back burried for many years in the back of your brain cells.

Eventually all of that goes and the mind will go blank, the cycling will become an automatism, small fractions of your mind are needed for the physical work and the mental attention needed for staying on the road, on the right track, not cycling under a passing truck.

Every so often your mind will get back in the here and now, maybe a passing Harley Davidson motorbike rider slowing down for a chat, a few stray dogs in a small village chasing you, assorted things...but mostly the mind goes blank.

A couple of times a day your belly will tell you it is time for the necesary food intake, put up the energy levels. The sight of a road side diner or Walmart supermarket a good incentive to your empty stomach to voice its hunger.

At the end of the afternoon and just before nightfall your mind will slowly come back in the real world looking for a free camping place and a longing for the luke warm Budweisers You`ll have bought somewhere during the day will set in.

You will sit in front of your tent under a moon lit sky, stars looking down on you like the eyes of the gods....slowly the memories of the day will come back to you while the sounds of the natural world will invade your ears.

Once you`re back in your own world, the town or village you live in, the traffic jams on the way to stressfull job after a morning`1s quarrel with your partner, on the way to a dominant boss....

Well, that is the moment that every so often the memories of these "blank" moments will come back to you, you`ll cherish them and remember them as very special.

Or at least that is way with me.