Enough is too Much!

David. My Grandfather Shenk had a saying that amused me as a boy: “Enough is too much,” he would pronounce from time to time. Never sure exactly what it meant, but it’s come to my mind this last week.

We’ve been on the road a bit more than two months. Two months of experiencing new scenes and places and people who are part of our country but we’ve never experienced them exactly this way. We’ve been taking it all in, and sharing it as best we can. This week we both realized we had reached a saturation point.

As we bike we discuss what the themes are that are emerging for us from this ride. One is that of “place.” People can be attached to a wide variety of places, places with wildly differing landscapes, housing styles, economic circumstances and cultures. But home is home.

 

We also discuss the theme of story. Many of the people we’ve encountered live in places with small populations. Some are in cities, of course, and those are places, and there are stories there. But a town with 30 people, or 300, doesn’t provide residents with “new people and new ears” very often. People may have no one to tell their story to because everyone they see is living the same story. So we come along, and we want to listen, and we’re good at it, so people talk to us. Often deeply. Often telling us things they don’t feel free to talk about as openly with their neighbors. And we take the stories in and they teach us things and affect us. Which takes energy.

 

We’ve crossed into and passed through New Mexico, and I’ve hardly blogged. There is new architecture and plants and landscapes, and it’s hard to even get myself to take pictures. We’re getting full to the top. Enough is too much.

 

Yet we’re not done. We must go on with the physical ride. And we want to keep on listening and opening ourselves to the people who have stories to tell. How do we do that?

One thing is to spend time with family and friends. Chris’ brother Harold and his wife Elba live in Tucson. They’ve hosted us. We went out for lunch. Went to the St. Xavier mission and were amazed by the beauty. We’ll play Mexican dominos later tonight.

 

We didn’t realize until we entered Tombstone, AZ that this was the site of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. So we wandered the streets a bit and played tourist and took pictures of a historical sign about boys wearing dresses in the Wild West!

             

Serendipity played a part. We stopped at a CVS to see if they had postcards from Douglas, the town we were staying at, and noticed Jerome looking at Chris’ bike. We talked. He’s a biker.  Took a one year “sabbatical” midlife and rode his bike around the US. And we’ve exchanged contact information and he’s helping us figure a way out of Tucson for when we push west.

Oh, and eating gas station food. Staying at a Motel 6 instead of setting up the tent one more time. Treating ourselves.

 

Today was a 0 day for the bike. Tomorrow we’ll put in some miles on the bike look that will take us through Tucson. And push forward more seriously on Sunday. Refreshed, and ready to engage again.