The Prologue

From “The Prologue” beginning The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer:

People long to go on pilgrimages,

And palmers long to seek strange shores

And far off shrines known in various lands,

And especially, from the ends of every shire

in England they come to Canterbury, (3)

So maybe it isn’t the Tabard Inn in Southwark (London) where the pilgrims assembled to go to Canterbury and maybe we are not on a religious quest. Instead we gather in the Samesun Hostel in San Diego, California, to bike across the country and end in St. Augustine, Florida. A different kind of pilgrimage. In 21st style, our first meeting a few weeks ago was online. Samesun has now become our Tabard Inn.

Now that I have been here in San Diego for five days, I have met my fellow riders as they have arrived as well as the two leaders. Overall, they are a great bunch of interesting people from all over the country. I'm not the oldest rider and certainly not the youngest. Tonight we had an orientation meeting and a group dinner. Tomorrow, the quest begins by dipping our rear wheels in the Pacific Ocean. The first thirty miles will be urban. Some of the ride on bike paths and some on city streets. We'll see beautiful vistas, surfers, urban congestion and homeless camps. All part of life's realities. Like the Canterbury tales, we will swap stories when we camp for the evening.

We began our day with part of the group having breakfast.