Yesterday, I took my first fairly long bike ride, and it was a wonderful experience from start to finish. I started out early, around 8:00, when the temperature was still cool and the sunshine had not yet strengthened. I rode along the river, keeping an eye on the road but also on the lovely flowers in yards and on the dozens of beautiful boats resting in the quiet river. I stopped a few times to take pictures (see above) and just enjoy the early morning scenes. There were some good-sized hills along the way to school, but I rode them with considerable ease, pumping hard to the top and then breathing deeply and resting myself as I coasted down the other side. I raced up the long gradual incline on Route 1 to the light at North Main, and was glad to be able to bear down almost to the top. (I’ll do even better next time.) The ride brought back all the old great feelings of rides in the past – the feeling of having fresh breezes at your back, of being somehow freer than you are back home, of experiencing life in a more limitless way. Walking is wonderful, but cruising along country roads on a bicycle is a great gift, one I received with gratitude yesterday.
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