Chance, circumstance, and luck.

These are all things I have been thinking about quite a bit since I've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers'. In the book, he argues with some very famous examples (Bill Gates, famous lawyers, Joe Flom) that people whom we usually classify as super extraordinary can be broken down and seen as just a bunch of lucky circumstances combined with the ability that matches so many others. I found his book fascinating because he talks about luck but then shows that it is not this intangible thing.. Sometimes it's just having had the opportunity to spend 10000 hours becoming a master of somethng before others had the chance.

Perhaps this doesn't directly relate to anything in my life right now... But everyday we think about the chances of rain, finding a campsite, not getting a flat, or hit by a car. We think about luck a lot too- when we get to a site and it then starts raining, when we happen to choose a nice scenic route, and most recently-on our ferry ride to England.

We arrived in Le havre after a ride down the coast from Etretat ( a small town with georgous cliffs we were LUCKY to stumble upon)...and were quite early for our ferry. There are only 2 per day-5pm (5hr ferry) and 630pm (3hr ferry)... We were set for the fast ferry, and were just lounging around the foot passenger checkin until we asked if it was too early to check in. The woman tells us then that our ferry scraped a dock a few hrs ago and has a huge hole in the side-won't be sailing anywhere today. Back up 5 hrs- Nate says to me 'I had a dream last night that our ferry had a hole in it somehow, and we couldn't go today'...'Nate! Don't jinx it!!'..'When did you become so superstitious?' ...(after we saw two black cats cross in front of us earlier and I got scared)

What are the chances of that?? Well, as luck would have it ... We ended up on the 5pm ferry after a few tricky maneuvers. We were told to go wait in the car line and to hurry bc they would take people on the slow ferry but only so many would fit. After we waited for 30 mins ... They stopped taking people. Everyone got out of their cars and demanded an explanation from the poor security people. One many finally told everyone what had happened and that they could drive to Brittany and catch a ferry there...'excuse me sir, we're on bikes' ....so he told me that we could catch a morning ferry. We rode away worried because where would we stay? And what about the nice person who was picking us up late at night at the other end of the ferry and letting us stay at her house (its like couchsurfing for touring cyclists- warmshowers.org).

We ended up being 'lucky' because we went back to the foot passenger checkin and a nice security man said 'Ill get you on'...buzzed us through the forbidden entry doors... And we rode on to the ferry...without tickets even!

It seems luck is a bit like the whole psychic phenomenon where you are stunned when they say things that are true, and quickly forget when they say things that are false. I supose we are all lucky then, if we only think about the 'good' luck and forget the 'bad ' luck (as we did when we rushed on to that ferry). Gladwell's point is that there really are no outliers, just a handful of people that happen to have been born at the right time, in the right culture, with suportive families for certain opportunities to be available. It's inspiring because it means that just because you aren't famously successful... Doesn't mean you aren't as qualified...there are just so many things we don't have control over. Phew! That's a relief !

I digress. But as far as our trip goes, we have been cycling through England with a short stopover in London. The roads here are very narrow and it is a bit stressful riding with so many cars. We ended up training into and out of the center of London bc of that, probably a choice that prevented 'bad luck'. We have seen some beautiful views though-rode through a national park on the way to London and now we are following the Kennet Avon cycle route along a towpath of a river/canal. Much needed quiet stretch after busy London!

By the way, the city was really neat. We stayed with my cousin Nick (yess family, he is alive and well) in his 12 person house and had a blast. He had off work so it was a great chance for him to see some more of touristy London too. We went to 3 museums (including the science museum) which were all free and lineless=amazing. We also wandered our way to some cool neighborhoods - brick lane which has a huge indian population and amazing curry; and Camden markets which is this area along a canal with people selling everything in stalls (one free stall too that I scored a hat and a book at)...every cultural food you could imagine too! I had pizza and a burrito, Nate had a gourmet veg burger, and Nick had a fajita burrito. Well done Camden. We also wandered though beautiful parks and saw ornate things (buckingham palace and London Tower)...all between some crazy tube rides. It was great to see so much of the HUGE city and visit with my cousin all the while.

So like I said, we're breathing in this country air, enjoying car free roads, and just taking in this last leg of our journey through western England and Southern Wales. We ferry to Ireland on the 15th... Crazy that we have about 2 weeks left! Can't wait to see you all...

Goodbye and goodluck!

Lucy

(ps. I wonder how my view of luck will change in ireland...)

Pictured: church in Rouen France, fresh butter/eggs from a farm we camped at in Normandy, Us in Etretat cliffs, Camden and th doubledecka busses.