Sometimes You Grind

Not every day on the road is sunshine and unicorns.  Today started off clear, cold, and sunny, but it didn’t take long for the temps to warm up, the clouds to roll in, and the gray to descend on the walk.

Dad pulling into the town limits of Auburn, NY under gray and cloudy skies.

Shortly after the gray rolled in, we found ourselves slogging through about five miles of urban terrain.  Sometimes it just works out that way. Sometimes there aren’t a lot of glorious scenes. Sometimes the only animals you see are the ones not lucky enough to make it across the highway.  Sometimes you just have to grind because that’s all there is to do on that particular day.

Today was one of those days, and grind we did.  Just under seventeen miles, and Dad ground through them like a champ.  Sometimes I forget that he’s seventy eight years old. He certainly doesn’t act like it.  He’s young at heart, and I’m proud of his effort and amazed at his resilience.

At the end of the day today, we’d managed to grind through a total of three hundred seventy-four point eight miles since leaving Newport, Rhode Island a little less than a month ago.  There were times that I wondered how far we’d be able to go, but those concerns are gone now. If we want to finish this trip, I now know that we can. All we have to do is keep grinding.  

Days like today are a good reminder of that truth.