Riding the South

Dec. 28, 2015

By Scott Morris

I rode my bicycle from Savannah, Georgia, to Los Angeles and then back to a corner in Winslow, Arizona.

I pedaled up Mount Everest 2.5 times.

OK, I didn’t really ride my bicycle across the country or up and down the world’s tallest peak.

But I did the equivalent. And it only took a year.

My past year on the bicycle can best be described in an ancient saying: “The ox is slow, but the earth is patient.”

This old ox compiled the following stats on his Garmin cyclometer:

• 3,133 miles of riding
• 75,794 feet of climbing
• 217,589 calories burned
• 101 rides
• 31 miles average per ride
• 212 hours on the bike
• 54.1 mph top speed (down Bugaboo Mountain)

Zero mph lowest speed (up Bugaboo Mountain)

 Here are a few more notes for the Riding the South journal:

• Favorite route — Natchez Trace Parkway from the Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall in northwest Alabama to Sweetwater Branch, Tennessee.
• Most interesting route — Virginia Capital Trail between Richmond and Jamestown, Virginia.
• Toughest climb — 3,469 feet on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Asheville, North Carolina.
• Longest ride — 69 miles on the Tanglefoot Trail in New Albany, Mississippi.
• Most scenic cornfields and cotton fields — Lauderdale County 62.
• Best place for a Mountain Dew Kickstart and Little Debbie’s Oatmeal Crème Pie — Cloverdale Quik Mart.
• Most Confederate flags, mean dogs and singlewide trailers per linear mile — Cullman County 1043 on the way to Clarkson Covered Bridge.
  

Even the slowest oxen should have goals for the coming year even as they look back upon the ground plowed in the past year.

So, in 2016, I pledge to burn more calories than I consume. And I hope to get back home from that corner in Winslow, Arizona.