Gator Country Hell Week Day 8: The End Is Near...Or Is It The Beginning?

Our lives are like books, consisting of many chapters that comprise our comings and goings, the things we did, the things we didn't do, the twists and turns, the ups and the downs. Donald Miller said in Across Painted Deserts (2005) that when the Author is nearing the end of the story of our life, it will be like holding a book with the bulk of the pages in our left hand, and only a few pages of end notes in the right.

I like to think that when the Author of my book is finished, there will be hundreds of pages of great reading to the left, yet an equal number of blank, unwritten pages to the right. It's just that the ink ran out.

And so we all finished a chapter of our lives today as Gator Country Hell Week #9 came to a close. Always a bittersweet occasion for me, it feels so good to reach my destination, yet sad that the journey has drawn to a close.

Today's route is one that brings philosophical closure for me. The ribbon of cracked old pavement known today as Old State Route 8 stretches my imagination to envision a time in Florida predating federal highways like US 27 running parallel. The lonely Dietjens Dairy Road near Venus, with its numerous abandoned houses, conjures thoughts of what it must have been like to be a farmer during the Depression.

The sagging shell of the building that once housed the Venus store, where 9 years ago I sat in the enclosed porch and enjoyed a Coke while chatting with the elderly store matron, stands as testament to changing times. And the broken windows of the abandoned Palmdale Store fail to do justice to a building that once served weary travelers on the way to Miami.

We went way back...back in time, and back to where we started but one week ago.

The final 49 miles of our route are also the first 49 miles we rode last Wednesday. During those miles I reflected on the people I had spent the last 8 days with, most of whom were total strangers to me before we started. It was fitting to end our journey the way we started it, rewinding the tape, yet able to see it at the same time.

In these 8 days we went from a ragtag group of riders from all over the country, and came back a cohesive team having completed our singular purpose. The 49 miles went by way too fast, fleeting last moments with a flock of new friends about to scatter in the wind like the seeds in the cottonball of last week's dandelion.

I could tell at breakfast this morning that this day was different. There wasn't as much sense of urgency to get started. There were photos being taken. There was joking.

And there was a prevailing mood of camaraderie that knew it was about to come to a screeching halt.

As we rode the final 15 miles along the bike paths of Fort Myers, we kidded around and took more pictures. We rode slower. We savored the moment.

But more importantly, we congratulated one another for writing the final sentence of a chapter and putting the little dot at the end. With a fistful of pages in our left hand, we also clung to a bundle of blank pages in our right hand, ready to start writing more tomorrow.

On second thought, no, that wasn't a little dot at the end of that final sentence. Make that an exclamation point. A big, tall exclamation point. We made it! And the journey was good!

Dr "Chapter and Verse" Gerlich