Dust off your bucket list and hit the pavement

One of the best things about getting out and about is the people we run into. A few years ago, I was sitting in a lodge in Whitefish, Mont., and it was teeming with people on epic bike journeys across the country.

Some are going north to south. Some are going east to west. Some are on road bikes. Others are on mountain bikes. They will all be riding for anywhere from weeks to months. Every one of them is riding for a different reason, but they all have a singular commonality: They plan.

And they eat a lot of food.

There’s a jazz pianist riding a tribute to a friend who died of cancer. He’s tracing the route she rolled decades ago. There is a young man riding to figure out what he’ll get his degree in before the autumn semester starts. There are business partners on a tax write-off ‘research’ trip.

What impresses me most is how people are dedicated to making room for adventures in their lives. Their bucket lists are living documents with fresh check marks. Things we ‘normal’ people would never consider (taking a month off work to sit in a saddle) is commonplace.

Every one of them has a solution to the problems I present: Scheduling, lifestyle, food, sore rear ends. Somehow I realize these kinds of adventures are not an impossibility. Real people are doing them every day.

Someone recently asked me what was on my bucket list and I hesitated to consider it. The older I get (and more responsible of sorts), the more difficult it seems to step away from every day and realize my dreams.

That’s no excuse. What I used to rattle off with disregard (joining the Peace Corp, bagging peaks, building a house, riding my bike the length of Chile) is now in distant “someday I’d like to” talk.

Life seems to get in the way of living. Obviously, there are some logistics involved in “living.” If hanging out with these cyclists has taught me anything, it’s that there is nothing a little planning (and a lot of map reading) can’t make happen.

Your own bucket list is likely a little different from mine. Hopefully it involves less blisters. Maybe it has some more reasonable projects on it, like learning how to sing, seeing Europe, planting a garden. The bottom line is this: Doing it is just a matter of planning it.

It begins with an idea and a dream. Before we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the grandness of our scheming, we can do the seemingly harmless tasks of education without commitment. After that, it’s just planning: Putting loose change in a jar, marking a calendar, getting spousal approval.

Imagine a life in which you actually did the things you dreamt of. Imagine a life filled with the memories of your experiences, rich in emotion and fulfillment. Imagine a life you lived.

Ammi Midstokke can be reached at www.twobirdsnutrition.com.