May 5, 2005

I just arrived at home from my bike ride that I promised myself I would take. Didn’t quite make 20 miles, but 15 miles is good enough for this stage of the season.

Someday I am going to ride across the wide open, flat plains of Iowa. I don’t care that it may be 95 degrees there. I don’t care if I’m chased by a funnel cloud. All I know is that by riding across the beautiful, flat Iowa plains, I’m not riding up the hill back to our house.

While leaving for lunch a short while ago, I announced to my co-workers that I was going to ride my bike tonight come hell or high water. The weather appears to be cooperating, I’m feeling relatively enthusiastic about the thought, so I declared to anyone within ear range that I was going to ride 20 miles tonight.

Let’s see if it really happens. I’ll have to fill you in tonight.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy cycling anymore. Because I really, really do enjoy it. It’s so relaxing to hit the back country roads on my two-wheels, enjoying the scenery, breathing the fresh air, talking to cows. The problem is that we don’t really live near the back roads anymore. It’s a chore to get to where cycling is enjoyable.

Of course, there’s the canal paths. They’re good fun, especially since a large portion of them have recently been paved and of course due to the fact that there’s no cars on the paths. At least there shouldn’t be, but around here you can never be too sure. But then there’s people walking on them and dogs pooping on them and everything, any that does not make for the most enjoyable experience when you have to play dodge the doo-doo. It is fun in a morbid way to see older pedestrians literally jump out of their wig when you sneak up behind them and say “Bike Back!”. As mom used to say, “it’s fun until someone gets hurt”. When one of these people drop from a heart attack I probably won’t enjoy it so much but for the time being it’s mildly entertaining.

I’ve been dreaming of doing an overnight ride towards the end of this month. Last time I tried it, it turned cold and rainy and I called Earl on the cell phone and pleaded like a little boy. “Come get me!” At least he brought a hot cup of chili when he did. That was thoughtful.

I still have the big dream of riding across the country. Now that’s a lot of open road.

Maybe I should tackle riding across town first.