Rain Delay

Today I am taking the day off from riding. The weather is wet and is forecast for more thundershowers through tonight. I don't want to ride in thundershowers and I can use the time to heal up a bit before I head into Mississippi next. The strange thing for me is that when I get up early and hit the road I feel fine but when I take a day off I get sore and stiff all over. Today my back hurts along with my butt and my legs. If I flex my lower legs they cramp right away. They don't do that when I ride every day. Maybe I need a longer rest to rebuild my body back up. When I get to St Augustine Florida I am taking a month off. I would like to hang out on the beach and just read and relax. I have not read a book since I started my ride and I am a readaholic. I miss my reading time. I also have another little health issue that is starting to get worse for me. My skin cancer is returning in a couple of places. Both places it is showing up are exposed to the sun on a daily basis. I lather myself in sunscreen several times a day but that is obviously not enough. There is a chance it would be returning even if I lived in a dark cave 24/7 but I think the sun is getting this going again. On my nose I have had it removed several times and it is back in the same place. When I get to Florida I am going to be forced into going to a dermatologist. I hate going to doctors now. I keep swearing that I will never go to another doctor in my life and then things like this pop up. At least my high chronic pain has been lower for the last couple of weeks. If I had high pain along with this returning cancer then I would likely sink back into a dangerously deep depression. The heavy dose of bike riding has almost eliminated any depression for me. My spirit is strong right now and I am sure the riding is the reason. It is not just the physical work out of riding that helps me but it is also all the time I have to think while I pedal away. I have been examining my life choices while I ride. I feel good about everything I have done in my life and I would not change any of it if given the chance to do so. I often wonder though what my life would be like today if I had made different choices along the way. I never had trouble making money in my lifetime until I got disabled that is. Any time I wanted to I was always able to make good money. The problem is I am just not interested in money. Big paychecks are not something I have ever aimed for. Money really means very little to me. I am happy to just get by. I guess I lack the drive for "success" in the standard American model of what success is all about. I have been happier than most people I know that are focused on getting ahead by making lots of money. I could use more than my social security check provides me. Living on under a thousand bucks a month is very hard to do but I survive on it. If I had lots of cash I could just go to a doctor for my skin problems right now. But for me to see a doctor I would either have to return to California or establish residency in another place and reapply for medicare and medicaid. That takes about a year to do. It is not easy to move around and be on medicare. I will most likely just ignore these skin cancer eruptions for now. They look like basal cell carcinomas not like melanomas so that is a good thing. If they are melanomas again I would need more surgery but the basal cells are just burned off or cut out in an office visit. I could also fly to Costa Rica and combine a vacation with a doctor visit. I had my last surgery down there and they did a very good job for very little money. That might be my best option. I will decide when I get to St Augustine. For now I just want to continue enjoying life as it rolls by and for today that means resting up in a cheap hotel for the day. more later...