It is difficult to ride in the sand!

As time moves forward, never forget the things that are truly important. Popularity fades as does the sun each night, while kindness and generosity last forever.

One day a long time ago in a far off place, a couple of people started out on a long trek on three gator bicycles. The morning was not perfect, thus the reason for the bike ride instead of opting for the beach! As far as you could see were dark clouds, as the wind was howling at a constant 40mph. All-in-all the bike ride was a much better choice than sitting on a couch watching re-runs of Opera , while munching on  bonbons. I had already completed the road course, and saw my share celebrities (Paula and Reese) leading to my reluctance of the ride, so to entice me,  a new course was suggested. The new alternative, lead us down the beach several miles and abruptly ends at the Ocean course.  The first couple of miles were uneventful, I see this every morning as you-all will (see Itinerary). With each pedal of the bike, I became more interested in my surroundings as I was able to see the island in a completely different light! The waves acted like an eraser on a chalkboard (white board for some of you or smart board for still other) as it erased any remembrance of people before, it was as though we were the only people who had ever stepped foot on the beach. The only marks that were on the sand were tracks left by our tires, just like footsteps in the sand that would allow many people over history to follow in you way.  Our arrival at the ocean course was met with disappointment as any place that offered access to view the course was sealed by armed guards as if they were trying to protect a precious gem. The only choice we had now was to turn our bikes around and head home! As we made our turn we then realized the wind was now directly in our faces, (to make matters even worse it was messing up my hair) at this point it was blowing so hard that if you did not keep pedaling, the wind blew you backwards! For a world class rider like me, that did not even pose a challenge, but for my riding companions, well that was a different story. After about 5 minutes the grumbling started, our tracks from the ride up were now gone, so not only did we have to contend with the wind we also had to deal with the issue of not knowing where the compact sand was on the beach! We rode about a half a mile, providing us with plenty of challenges in the  sand, we decide to leave the beach and  hit the road. As we passed a different golf course we decide that we would stop in and get ourselves a nice cool drink of water, and to our surprise we got to meet a Heisman trophy winner! He had this huge display of which the center piece was his trophy, he also showed extreme pride in showing off the ring. Something was really wrong because this chance meeting just went on and on, and not to be rude, but we were now missing prime beach time. Due to our good hearted natures we stayed even longer what else could, the choice that confronted us was to leave a world class athlete all alone other than his lackey , or to gracefully walk away watching him stand there all alone with a look of sadness on his face! We did eventually decide to gracefully walk away, and sure enough, he looked as if he lost his last friend! Poor Johnny! That afternoon on the beach, (as we all do) I gave some serious thought to what just transpired.  Since I was the old man of the group, I remembered him playing football, the next old man (you know who you are) heard of him, but the young lady had no idea who he was. Therefore in less than a half generation, his memory was almost gone, but in one generation it was history! The only thing he had left in his life was an old tarnished trophy, and some lame stories of how he scored 4 touchdowns in one game.( he did have some fine white shoes on)  He did provided entertainment to people, so I guess that gets you money and fame, but just as the waves clean the beach, there are no footsteps to follow.

Words of wisdom:  Beware of whose footsteps, you follow for fame is fleeting but compassion is everlasting.