Riding Like a Kid

With the cool, windy weather and my general laziness, I haven't ridden any of my bikes in a while. But today the weather was perfect - 70 degrees, sunny, and no wind. So I took a bike ride.

Now this was no normal bike ride.

I pulled the old Nashbar steel bike out from behind my workbench and aired up the inch-wide tires. I put on tennis shoes instead of cleated riding shoes, because this bike has flat pedals. Instead of skin-tight riding shorts and a jersey I put on an old pair of mountain bike shorts and a bright orange tee shirt. My old sunglasses were nearby (not my fancy prescription athletic glasses), and I pulled a raggedy pair of gloves out of the cabinet in the garage. On my head I placed a retired $20 helmet that I still had lying around.

I headed down the street and across parking lots to the park and reservoir on our end of town. I rode around the reservoir a few times, down some side streets, and past the new Starbuck's. I have no idea how far or how fast I went, because I had no bike computer to distract me. There were only the canadian geese and turtles and birds and the bike and the road and me.

It was cycling for the fun of it.

And I loved it.