Trapped or opportunity?, Calendar danger

Dear friends and family,

Last evening I got a knock on my door, which surprised me since I thought I was the only one in my apartment building and an unknown visitor.

There were two women there who introduced themselves as the neighbor downstairs and the neighbor across the alley. They said in very broken English that they heard that I was cycling across Croatia, at which they actually bowed down before me, showing huge respect and most importantly they wanted to warn me not to leave the next day for my next ride. How they knew I had plans to leave on the morrow, I’ll probably never know, but it is a very small town. 

The one woman told me that in the last week that five people had died due to the strong winds (I assume not on bicycles) and that I should go to the highway department website to see the road closed to bicycles, motorcycles and tall trucks and buses. They then explained, using mime and hand gestures, that it isn’t the average wind that blows people off the road down the cliffs, but the gusts which come out of nowhere. 

After I assured them that I would check the website and stay another day, they left to go to their homes. I had felt that the Croatians were kind of sick of tourists and enjoying their offseason free of them (me?), but it was nice to feel so protected by a couple of locals.

I expected the bura winds to end (as per the forecast) three days ago, but they started up again and with strength. 

I can look at this situation a couple of different ways:

1. I am trapped in this little town in my little apartment with very few businesses open, and it’s cold (31 degrees F) and windy and kind of desolate. I want to ride, but can’t. It’s like those deprivation chambers of salt water the temperature of your body where they close off all light and let you be stuck with your mind only. I am alone and wondering if this whole winter riding thing was a good idea as the main draw for this coast is the water and water activities that I don’t participate in, and then sitting outside at cafes to enjoy the local food and culture. It’s too cold to sit outside and since so few people are out, it’s hard to meet people. Instead I am inside my room experimenting with cooking noodles using a pod type coffee machine. Or
2. I can use the time of waiting as a benefit of being with little distraction to read, write and work out in my room. This is really part of any big adventure, the control of your mind to stay the course when you want to quit, to use the time effectively to learn things and spend lots of time to cogitate. There are two big grocery stores here and even one decent restaurant open most nights. Reading and writing are two of my favorite things to do and I have entire days to devote to it. I have all the books I want to read on my kindle and my ipad and internet to write and share my writing. This is an adventure I chose to ride across Europe in the winter to challenge myself while seeing the countries without tourists. 

I choose to go to number two above. I think of it as an opportunity to learn and apply discipline to my thinking and riding. 

I remember some waiting times years past when mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies. My climbing partner Richard and I were held up by a serious rain delay in our tent while waiting to climb Mt Robson. We had been climbing for a couple of weeks so were feeling strong and ready. This would have been our most serious climb ever, so there was a nervous anticipation to get moving. Now we had to wait in our expensive lightweight mountaineering tent concerned each day that our fitness was waning as we sat. For entertainment we played M&M poker until all the chips were eaten. Then, since we chose to travel light and skip bringing the cookware and stove we started preparing our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Except for one thing, that we forgot the bread between us in our lightweight packing days before. It was bear country so we had our three pointed camping, with sleeping in one point, food prep (I almost used “cooking”) in another, and eating in the third.

So with no food in the tent we each took a spoon and hid behind a rock to eat the peanut butter and jelly sans bread. There was a young family camped near us, with their Walmart tent and backyard camping type gear. One of the two kids spotted us eating our meal this way and alerted his parent as to our dilemma. “Mom” brought over a few slices of bread to solve our problem. Us. the tough mountaineeers with the expensive gear, being rescued by the family on a weekend outing. 

On that trip the rainstorm didn’t let up for days, so we eventually cancelled our climb and hiked out to our car to go home. We chose to NOT go for it even though it was the end of our vacation time off. 

That kind of situation brings up a very real safety issue in adventuring and creates what the sailors call “the most dangerous thing to have on a sailboat” which is a calendar. 

My experience both in sailing and in mountaineering proves that “dangerous” point. If you ever read accounts of accidents in either endeavor, you can often (most often I think in mountaineering) that an accident happened because the climb was attempted into a dangerous forecast that could have been avoided had the climbers waited for better weather, but I often see that “they were near the end of their two week vacation window and decided to go for it anyway”.

Same is often true of sailors who go out in conditions they shouldn’t because they have to get to a certain place to maybe pick someone up to visit. 

I find this true so often that I remind myself to not be victim of the same calendar thinking. Yes, I want to start riding again and yes, I see that I have only a limited number of days to legally stay in Croatia, but that “calendar” thinking could hurt me in a big way. A big “thank you” to my neighbors for the reminder. 

The noodles turned out pretty well, want some?

Sending love,

Charley