Funny thing about having doubts...

... is that sooner or later they dissolve into vapor.

Not even a day after I wrote that last entry, I got my second wind and stopped having doubts. I will just take things as they come and deal with any issues that arise. It is funny trying to recall these thoughts from two or three days ago. I have had so many ups and downs physically and emotionally that they all seem to blend into one another. 

The three black bears eating berries on the side of the road was probably the main turning point in my pity party. On one of the straight stretches of the Alcan, I noticed three black shapes on the side of the road and slowed very fast so I could observe from a distance without spooking them. As I watched what appeared to be two cubs and an adolescent, a camper drove past and scared the cubs into the woods. The older bear continued to graze on the wild berries and every now and again would peer at the cars that would pass. I just stayed in place and snapped away. The pics I took turned out to be just average, but you can still see that he was cute enough to cuddle with... uhh, perhaps not cuddle, but he is pretty cute. My best view was as I rode slowly past. He looked up from about 10 feet away and just followed my movement until I had to look away at the road.

A short while later I passed a moose... dead on the side of the road. Then another black bear, then a herd of Dahl Sheep, then some Wapiti (Elk), then... I think the length of this road and the cold and the rain and the rough parts of the road and, and, and... I just didn't see an end and that was making me imagine a continuous dialogue loop in my head.

Heroic figure: "All right, I'll give it a try."

Little white haired dude: "No! Try not! Do or do not. There is no try."

When it started to get cold, I kept thinking I was on an ice planet (too much time to myself this week) and as I continued into the unknown, my inner dialogue prattled on again. "Your tonton will freeze before it reaches the first marker." Apparently my bike was playing the roll of the tonton for that part - he doesn't seem to mind.

It is a good that my bike is so accepting of my quirks.