It’s funny how the world works. You spend your younger years learning life's lessons, screwing up and making bad choice. I used to think about how badly I would like to leave the town I grew up in and experience the world.

I did just that, tore my world apart, moved south, became a Game Warden (chased a dream, it is true what they say, the grass is not always greener...), got lazy, made excuses, grew apart from my friends, family, roots, and lost sight of cycling.

Then, something strikes you, an unexpected blow from a tangent of your life you had come to forget, but suddenly puts things in perspective. A slap in the face that fans a weakening ember within your gut, igniting a raging fire.

I got a message from Josh Beals, that Jay Heverly (a tough as nails bad ass) had passed away. Jay and I, we knew each other, we rode together a few times in college, and worked at Oswald’s Cycle Works for a time. We were not particularly close, but still, it was a jarring bit of news. It brought me back to thinking about the loved ones I had lost recently, that closeness that had turned to distance, the loss of my core values and roots. I looked in the mirror, and saw the lazy lump of a man staring back at me. The questions flooded into my mind. What values am I going to pass onto my children? How do I stay healthy and live a long life for them? And, how do I find happiness again? It took a year from that point for me to sort myself out, and come to a conclusion.

I thought back to a time when I was the happiest, hiking with my then fiancé, now wife in Tioga County, destroying cross frames with Josh, listening to Death Cab for Cutie at the shop, and attempting to keep up with the crew from Oswald’s as we sprinted towards county boundary signs, or cramping up at the pizza shop and falling off the stool.

I need to get back into that personal space and cycling is the king pin to that main goal. Over the next few months, I am hoping to log my experiences coming back to cycling after a 5-year hiatus. Having moved back to Pennsylvania, I have begun exploring new places, I have new goals, and a renewed focus. I hope to write about my experiences over the next few months.

Goal 1: Ride from Camp Hill Pennsylvania to Lewisburg PA within the next three weeks.

Goal 2: Ride the old Iron Cross course in Pine Grove Furnace PA.

Goal 2: Ride a century in June.

Goal 3: Ride from Camp Hill PA to Wellsboro Pa, primarily on dirt roads at the end of July.