A gray whale just surfaced a few times as it swam past our beach. It even decided to throw a little spouting show. How cool is that?

Kevin & I were having our tradition of  afternoon coffee when it happened…well, no, let me clarify…he was having a Corona while I had a capuccino, but you get the idea.

I feel like I truly earned my coffee today.

This is my second day on my new post-Taos plan. I set my timer for one hour and got to work on the memoir, using some of the instructions that Minrose Gwin offered us last week.

To say it was a slog would be an understatement.

It was painful. I kept cheating and looking at the timer.

I felt trapped, cooped up, held for ransom and did it anyway.

Nothing sang. Nothing worked. And the only reason I kept going was because of cycling and a quote I’d read yesterday.

First, about that cycling reference; when we were slogging up yet another sleeting and semi-frozen pass in the Rockies, I muttered to myself that I actually hated cycling and why the hell did I persist in taking cycling trips?

And going down those steep passes was almost worse. I was terrified at how fast I was going, the broken pavement kept my elbows jarring and trashed them into aching messes that woke me in the night and yet…

Every single day – at some point in the ride – I’d have this huge endorphin high. Sometimes it was multiple times in the day. I’d suddenly realize I felt great and happy and strong and of course, I’m with some of my favourite women on the whole planet and there is always the endless laughing. And some of that laughing is semi-hysterical because of course, we get that this is really stupid. Most women over the age of fifty go on spa weekends or have a potluck or meet for lunch…But no-o-o-0…we have to cycle through the freakin’ Rockies and stay in hostels with no running water – and LOVE it.

And so, when each day was done,  I swear I’d grown a few inches taller and was probably bullet proof.

In other words, the accomplishment was hard-won and worth it.

And the other thing that made me keep going was the quote I read yesterday in the August issue of The Writer. It’s from Jo Nesbo.

Nesbo said,  “When it’s easy, when it just comes to you, when you feel like you’re a heck of a writer, that’s when you’re probably tired and it’s time to call it a day.”

Thank you Jo Nesbo. Thank you Cycling Sisters. Thank you Rocky Mountains. Thank you Gray Whale.