Backroads

Here’s a riddle for you…..what do you get when you mix three physicians, a dentist, a rabbi, three lawyers, a psychology student, two optometrists, a science teacher and a writer/stay-at-home dad?

You get a Backroads cycling vacation group.

You know how you can take a well-adjusted and socialized kid and place him in a room with strange children around his age with similar interests, a game, perhaps a ball of some kind and eventually they will play together and have fun? That is what these trips are “sort-a” “kind-a” like.

An outdoor and a social adventure and if all goes well, and everyone is well-adjusted and socialized it can be amazing. Refreshing too…..because it becomes clear to you that it is true everything you need to know about life you learned in Kindergarten and it is a refresher course on what your “friending style” is at any stage of your life.

Backroads, by the way, is a “tour company” that leads adventure trips through the “back roads” of different and interesting locales. We, Eric and I, love these trips because we enjoy the mix of activity and sightseeing and most of all, we always like meeting the people who are drawn to these trips.

This year we chose Colorado, a trip that would take us through Vail, Crested Butte and Aspen.

Like on our three prior trips, the group started out on the first day as complete strangers in bike tights…and let me tell you, meeting people for the first time in bike tights is quite interesting as this is a piece of apparel that is attractive on a small percentage of the population (especially when one of the guys is wearing them backwards...but we won’t mention names Kenny).

We had different accents and different looks and we had no idea what anyone did for a living or what their families were like. We had no clue why anyone came on the trip or what their riding abilities were and we didn’t know how we would groove as we were a mix of couples and “singles” and a father and son. All we really knew is that we wanted to ride….

And we had the “ride of our lives”….which, as we learned from our friends from Scotland, Ann and Kenny, means something totally different over yonder. Say that to a Scot and they think about “shagging” not cycling.

We learned about ironman competitions from Chantal and Kevin, we learned about cycling experiences all over the world from Tammy and Gary, we learned about the joy of sharing adventures with your child and with your parent from Bill and Marc, we learned about dealing with disappointment gracefully from Peter (he had altitude sickness and instead of feeling the wind in his face on a bike, he was sucking oxygen in his room (sorry Peter)), we learned how much food a competitive and impressive cyclist can consume at a meal and still be fit and fast from Adam and we learned about persistence from Bob who rode his pace and always seemed to finish.

We learned a little about what motivated each person’s trip: a graduation present, getting fit by 50, training for competitions, “a bit of exercise while on Holiday,” (you must read that last one with a Scottish accent), a 40th birthday celebration, a passion for cycling and in the case of Eric and I, remembering where we have been and seeing where we are going.

The riding was the hardest I ever attempted and the Vuv (literally, the “Vuv”) is feeling the effects of this trip but the scenery and the people were memorable and I sincerely hope I get to see both, all, again.

A shout out to our amazing guides, Kitty and Emily!!!

And to all, Livestrong!