Virginia, beautiful state , beautiful people but a vortex.

Virginia was fantastic to tour. It was extremely beautiful, it provides some amazing scenery, fantastic people but also it can suck you in into this vortex where you are never going to leave. I have been fortunate enough to meet many Appalachian Trail hikers on the Skyline Drive.  Many were wonderful, some I could not care for very much as I am sure their feeling were mutual. It happens, you can’t love everyone all the time. In some towns and some instances, some of these hikers have been hiking the Appalachian Trail for many years; or have circumstances which they claim have not allowed them to finish.  I have not experience or authority to determine the right circumstances of someone having the benefit of finishing something in certain amount of time. I, for one, love the fact that I can take my time and explore and make my own schedule and take as much leisure time and explore what I want to explore, so I can get the satisfaction and the benefits of touring the way I want to tour. Carrying what many think is an incredible amount of wait is to me satisfactory and beneficial to my goals of exploration and flexibility. But I still want to finish this tour so I can go home to my loved ones and pass on my experiences in hopes that others can decide to explore and see, feel and experiences some of the things this wonderful world has to offer without the influence and limitations of combustion transportation. It is important to finish, it is important to say you are going to do something and do it. To take the responsibility of planning something to some capacity and scale and mapping some direction to get to a destination and to say to yourself and to the world: ” I finished, it is completed” It has to be tangible in order to pass it on to others and to have others keep some type of interest into what you did and why you did it. In many of the instances where I was camping in towns such as Waynesboro, VA, I met many hikers that had the determination and desire to complete this monumental trail but others were what I could occupational hikers or runners. Running away from something. What is that something? What determines the breaking point to make a decision to stay and deal with a problem that may never go away or to run away from it and live this nomadic life that becomes circumstantial and makes you this free spirit. I have often giving it a lot of taught after leaving Waynesboro and how my circumstances are different than some of the occupational hikers that I have met along my journey. It is so easy to place everyone with a label and give them a definition of who they are and why but the mystery is that what, why and how something works for someone and does not work for me; makes it right or wrong in anyone’s book. The beauty of cycle touring is that I get a minimal exposure to these characters and circumstances but enough to evoke thought process. Miles and miles to think and want and hope to become a better human being.