Sea-to-Sea NA Day 33 I’m riding down another endless road. I’m fighting another head wind and my speed is slowly dropping. I verbally abuse myself and pick up the pace a little only to watch it drop again a few minutes latter. A transport truck comes from the opposite direction and bashes me with its wind, Katrina it said on the truck. Then almost immediately after that a truck called Rita (not my wife but the hurricane) comes along and bashes me again. My speed drops even though I duck to try to avoid the wind off of this one. As I look ahead at the endless road I wonder what it must be like for those struggling to get ahead with no light at the end of the tunnel, like this road. Constantly being bashed and battered by poor up bringing, poor education, being born in the wrong place, poor government and then natural disasters, wars and disease. I can see how they would like to just lie down along the side of the road and give up. Me I have a map, I know there is a camp at the end of the road somewhere even though I can’t see it, I have hope. If I can just keep going a little longer, I will get there. Pity those who have no maps, who constantly get bashed by big trucks and who have no hope. That is what this ride is all about. Earlier in the day we had shorter distances before the next road change, we had manageable targets, we had curves in the road, hills we could crest and valleys to descend into. It was much nicer riding that way. That is what this tour can do for the poor – give them just a little hope, help them accomplish one small manageable goal and then maybe they will have hope and strive to reach the next goal on their own or with a little less help. The sky was overcast for most of today’s ride but the winds were far from favourable. Some riders had a nice shower along the road; I had only a few drops. The scenery had changed early today to more rolling hills but then went flat latter on. It looks like most riders will make it in on their own today and that’s good. My time for the non-stop ride of 144km was just over 5 hours for an average speed of 28.3. That should tell you that there was a lot of head/side wind or that I had a rough weekend, the latter I don’t remember so it is probably the former.