As mentioned, the Iron Butt Rally is all about making the best choices out of difficult and often conflicting circumstances.
As much as we try to focus solely on the ride and the road ahead, Life still happens, whether we’re paying attention or not.
Dayle had planned to spend the week with her elderly mother while I was galavanting around the country. Unfortunately, before Dayle had landed in PA, her mom was hospitalized.
Family matters. Certainly more than some game of chasing imaginary points around the country on two wheels.
I set one GPS to Carlisle, PA to see how quickly I could get there if needed. And I realized that while I was pushing hard to get to some random town in NY by some arbitrary 5 pm deadline, I could simply turn south and be with my wife and mother-in-law by 5 pm instead. In fact, I had crossed PA twice the day before and once already on this leg, so it seemed silly to keep running around in circles for some game while Life was happening just a few hours away from me.
I called Dayle and told her I was dropping out of the Rally to come and be there for her and her mom.
She insisted that I continue on the Rally, that she had everything under control, and that even her mom was following my tracker and wanted to see me do well.
I reluctantly agreed, knowing that my loop around the northeast would keep me close to PA if anything should change. So I stayed the course, and we decided to reevaluate in the morning while I would still be close to them if needed.
And then Dayle went in to see her mom, and to speak with the doctors and counselors. And while her mom was in good spirits, it became clear that she wasn’t likely to come home again. Life catches up with us all, eventually.
So we talked. Then I called the Rally Master and told her that I was safe, the bike was fine, but I was dropping out of the Rally. I was still four hours away from Carlisle, and I was still fighting too little sleep. And the last thing Dayle needed was her mom and her husband in the hospital at the same time…
So I stopped at the next town, grabbed a room, and got a solid two hours of sleep. I then made my way south through PA to be where I needed to be, and to give Dayle the biggest hug ever.
I’m disappointed about the Rally, to be sure. But there will always be another Rally. There will never be other parents.
So go call your parents right now, if they’re still around. And go hug them if you can.
And if you can’t, then pull out the photo albums and home movies and spend some time with them anyway.
Because it matters.