The Last 50 Miles

Several years ago Rich and I rode the bike to Panama City Beach for Thunder Beach. It's a 7 hour drive by car...it took a little bit longer on a motorcycle. I remember how excited we were to pack up and pull out of our neighborhood - looking all bad ass in our leathers and shades. We were giddy with the thrill of doing something so "cool" and taking the bike on our first long trip. About 3 hours our literal asses were sore and we were vowing to get new seats (which we got as soon as the trip was over) as soon as possible.

The sweet Alabama landscape looked so beautifully different from where I sat, holding my husband's waist, listening to my MP3 player as the Eagles reminded me to "Take it Easy. 4 hours in the couple we were riding with had a flat tire and we got delayed about 2 hours while that got fixed. We got back on the road and kept on heading South. We just never thought we'd get to Florida.

 
  Once we crossed that Florida line we could start to pinpoint exactly when we should be pulling in to the hotel. The excitement began to rise within our tired minds and bodies. We were exhausted beyond measure but we KNEW the end was coming...another 50 miles or so. Each one seemed to go by even slower than the one before.  We kept pushing on..just one more hour...another 45 minutes...only 30 miles to go...almost there. We kept pushing until finally, "Welcome to Panama City Beach" came into focus - we were never so happy to get there than we were that evening.

A few awesome days there and it was time to hit the road again for home. The final road to Home was filled with the anxiety of knowing what was ahead of us...knowing how far we'd go until time to fill up, when we should be where at a given time (barring no flat tires or issues), and when we should be rolling back into the driveway. We rode North now knowing what to expect from the road and the bike. We hit that last 50 mile marker and the realization that we were almost finished with of the trip; that we'd even did the trip; hit our minds and our bodies.

Just 50 more miles...we can do this. Like dejavu, each mile seemed longer than the last. We held on and pushed on until we got to our town. When our neighborhood came into view we rushed to it with everything we had; arriving more knowledgeable and exhausted than we ever imagined before.

As I think about this deployment I relate it to that trip. The first part of deployment took a lot longer than we expected and we never thought we'd finally get to R&R. In a blink he was gone and we've begun the long ride back Home. While it's not long now until deployment is over, the days/miles can't pass fast enough. We are both tired from our time on this road we've been on for 9 months, we are weary, our bodies and spirit are exhausted from the trip. Less than 50 miles to go...we'll hold on tight and just keep pushing on.

BTW: Rich and I still talk about that rode trip. We'll ride Thunder Beach again this year (end of April).