More than sixty years ago I learned how to ride a bicycle. It seems like yesterday when my father removed the training wheels from my first bike. I remember it vividly. Over the years between children and family, there has always been bicycle in my household. Through those years, I pedaled around from time to time, depending on my mood, weather conditions, adolescent peer pressure, fashion, convenience, unacceptance or acceptance from coworker, family, friends and distance. However, the past seven years I have made a commitment to ride everyday if possible. It has become my addiction.
As I grow older, I no longer am concerned about those obstacles mentioned above to prevent me from enjoying something that has always been a pleasurable passion. The past few years, my cycling interest have encompassed, group rides and touring with local bike clubs, fundraising rides, triathlons and bike commuting. However, the past couple of years bike commuting and touring have been at the top of my cycling interest.
The onset of warmer weather brings another season of welcomed bike touring. I remember the summer of my freshman and sophomore years of college, spending that summer with my grandmother taking a 40 mile bike tour. I had borrowed my younger cousin's ten speed to ride some the country roads of western Kentucky. It is a day I have come back to a lot over the past few years as I gain more and more experience with longer bike tours. There is so many ways to describe the exhilaration of human powered traveling in the solitude and serenity of a country road.
My most recent tour during May 2015 caused me to do lot of self examination. While on one of those beautiful quiet, peaceful country roads in Indiana during my latest bike tour, I came to the realization that I am addicted to bicycling. Or to put it more blatantly, it has became a habit and a way of life for me. The past few years I have watch hours of videos of cyclist especially in countries outside of the United States commuting and traveling by bike. And for the life of me I am hard press trying to figure out why it is looked upon some negatively here in America. In a country that professes to be a leader in the world in some many things, technology, healthcare, wealth, we trending in lagging in fitness, equality of life, wealth, and mass transit. Overindulgence may lead this generation of Americans to have a lesser life expectancy than the baby boomers.
I do not have any regrets with this addiction. It has brought me back to my youth. Has made me more aware of the simpler things of life. I have nothing negative against the advent of usage of current, new and better technology but I have come to understand that both can live sis by side.
Last year I planned everything down to the minutes that I ate meals simply because of my diabetes. I had a purpose and theme for last year's tour. This year I did not do much planning for my first bike tour of several of the 2015 year. It was an enjoyable experience. Over the next few blogs, I will write about some of the things I experienced, see and felt for this most recent bike tour. I hope you will stay along with me for the ride.
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