London to Brighton Baby! (Part 2)

Friday night before our trip I rode around the southwest of London for 4 hours looking for the correct route out of town. It shouldn’t have taken me more than two hours but London has a funny way of giving multiple streets the same name while also giving the same street multiple names.
Our ride down on Saturday went much smoother than I expected and although we took a few wrong turns, we were always able to make it back on track with no more than 100 yards of back tracking. We were able to stop for a nice Pub dinner along the way, however, at the time we stopped, we thought we were much closer than we actually were. After leaving the pub around 6:30 or 7, it was starting to get a bit darker outside and we realized we had almost 20 miles left to go!
The next 20 miles went a lot faster than the first 30 as we were determined to make it back before nightfall and before the rain.
We reached Ditchling Beacon around 8 PM and 3 out of 7 of us were able to ride up, better than the 2 out of 10 average of the charity ride. It was a nice cruise down the other side and when we had made it into town it was only starting to drizzle. Kyle headed to the train station while the rest of us headed to the Holiday Inn where we were able to fit all 6 into one double deluxe room. The bed was big enough for 3 and the other 3 were able to find plenty of space on the floor. An awesome 2 for 1 deal on pizzas at a shop on the corner was about all the Brighton we could handle for the night as it was almost 11 O’Clock by the time everyone had showered and we were all pretty tired and sore from the day’s ride anyway.
The next morning we went out for a quick breakfast around 11 after checking out of the hotel and then headed down to the beach to take a couple of pictures and dip our tires into the sea! From there, Emil and Seamus headed into town on their way back to the station while Chris, Lynn, and Trevor stayed near the beach the rest of the day.
Before checking out I had checked the weather report and the chance of rain had gone down from 100% as it said on Thursday, to only 77% so I decided to chance it and head back to London by bike.
I wasn’t more than a half hour into my ride when I took my first detour because the bike path that went along the highway strayed off a bit. I stopped for directions shortly after that for the first time and was told about an easy way to take some side roads back to a bike path that went alongside my route on the A23 highway. As I was on that route I saw an old beaten down bike path. I decided to go for that, unfortunately there was a small fence and about 15 feet of brush between me and the bike path. Shortly after I rode into the brush I realized these plants were Stinging Nettle. I made my way over the fence and to the bike path on the other side but not without much pain. I discovered on Wikipedia after I got home that Stinging Nettle contains a poison similar to that of insect bites. Wikipedia also said “The plants have stinging hairs (trichomes), whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that will inject a cocktail of irritants: acetylcholine, histamine, 5-HT and possibly formic acid. This mix of poisons cause a sting or paresthesia from which the species derives its common name, as well as the colloquial name "7 minute stitch" and burn hazel.” Just prior to this I was thinking about how my shins and calves weren’t sore or anything and they were actually feeling quite good. Not anymore.
I must have stopped for directions at least 6 times while finding my way back. The best advice I got was from a guy at the Devil’s Dyke golf course who simply said, “Keep the sun on your back and at least you’ll be going the right direction” and so that’s what I did. I began disregarding other’s directions when I didn’t think they were right. On my way back down from Devil’s Dyke I passed through a roundabout going North to South where over an hour earlier I had passed going East to West trying to follow someone else’s directions.
I stopped at a gas station to ask for directions a little further down the road. I had been biking down London Road parallel to the A23 which goes straight to London. I told the guys I was thinking of just staying on London Road but he told me that about a mile down the road, it merged in with the A23 and that I would need a lawyer if I was caught biking on that rode because I would get thrown in jail. I didn’t know where else to go so I decided to head down London Road anyway and hope that his ignorance of local bike trails would be sufficient enough that he just didn’t notice there was a bike path next to the road!
Well we were both right. London Road did eventually merge in with the A23 but there was also a bike path along the side. I passed one exit and the bike path kept going so I continued on down the side of the A23. Unfortunately, a little ways down, the bike path then merged into the A23 as well. I saw a sign for POLICE in the distance so I decided to hop off my bike and walk down to the station. I figured I would either get thrown in jail (unlikely) or they would help me find my way back onto my path. As I got a bit closer, I realized it said in smaller letters “unmaked cars operating”. There was no station. I biked back up to the nearest exit and again began biking and winding around side streets as best I could trying to keep “the sun on my back”.
While I was on the road I had a lot of time (over 11 hours as a matter of fact) to breathe in the fresh air and just have a good think about life. I decided that my journey back to London had some parallels with my journey through life.

At the end of this journey, I want to end up in London. At the end of this life, I want to end up in Heaven.

Throughout this journey, I have asked people for direction, sometimes they were right, and sometimes I had to choose not to follow them and just go the way I felt was best. On some occasions, it worked out, on other occasions, I ended up climbing large obstacles or walking down the side of the highway where I wasn’t supposed to be.

I tried to take a short cut early on and got stung.

While I was out “in the middle of nowhere”, I saw a sign that suggested I was on the right path and a feeling of relief came over me. It was then that I decided the only way I would be able to enjoy the rest of the ride was to simply accept the fact that I didn’t know where I was, that I had a clear idea of my goal, and only a vague idea of how to get there, but that I would get there eventually. It was then that I realized, the hardest part for me about living the Christian life, is letting go of control of the direction I am going in this life. I’m not saying that I’ve now done this; I just know that that’s the hardest part for me. If I could just let God take control of my life, what would that look like?

I had only been riding for three hours when I saw that sign and felt that amount of relief. I couldn’t stop smiling because I was so happy to know I had made the right choice, and that I was no longer going the wrong direction. Now imagine, 20, 50, or 100 years of trying to follow this path toward a goal and finding at the end that you were on the right track. Despite some hiccups, some detours, and a little bit of back tracking, you reached your goal.

I think that’s a little bit of what Heaven is going to be like; A HUGE RELIEF. I think we’ll get there and say to one another, in jubilant exultation of course, FINALLY! To know that the journey was not wasted, to know that the difficulty and confusion, and struggle for faith and righteousness were all part of a mandatory prerequisite, to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it all had purpose, and to be finally done with that leg of life. Because I believe at that point we will see that Life has actually just begun.