Country Road

I'm working a really early schedule at work now. It's a little rough getting up in the morning. But the afternoons are totally making it worth it. I was thinking about this this afternoon as I rode through the backroads somewhat near my house. I say somewhat cause I took a new loop today. I had plenty of day light so I figured I'd experiment a little. I don't know why I ever think that's a good idea, but today I did. I took off and I was a little cold, but I figured I'd warm up once I hit the first few hills. Yup, didn't happen. So I'm hoofing along, trying to get warm, but also enjoying the day. At the beginning of the ride the sun was out and I could smell the smell of fall as I passed the farms. I don't know what that is. Maybe a mix of rotting cow shit and hay that's been harvested; but for some reason it smells good. So I'm ridding along and it's a little chilly, but over all a beautiful fall afternoon so I decided to take a new turn.
Well, the new turn ended up taking me a whole lot of new turns until I had no clue where I was. The sun was gone and a thick grey sky lay overhead. The wind picked up and the temperature must have dropped about 10 degrees. I was lost, and freezing, my toes were going numb and by now had to pee. Great. I thought about calling Marc, as I did have my phone with me. But I felt that would be like admitting defeat. So I kept at it. I wasn't really totally lost. I was on a loop that was marked. The problem was it's marked for a 25, 50, and 100k. And somehow I got on the wrong one and it was taking me very far away from home. I figured if I just followed it long enough that it would lead me back to a road I knew and then I could cut back home. The only problem was I was absolutely freezing and my feet were almost completely numb, making it very hard to climb. But I didn't give up, I plugged on and eventually it finally linked to a road I knew and I made my way home. I was very cold, feet very numb, and bladder about to burst. But I did it. I hadn't given up and I found my way on my own and had a really good ride.