Tuesday, November 21, 2006

We rode across the country

My most memorable moment on a bicycle...

#1  How did we ever get here?



Ok, twelve weeks of riding could be considered a lot of memories, good and bad, but it’s impossible for me to distill it down any further.  The singular feeling of freedom as we puttered along was like nothing else I’ve every felt.  It was just Mags and me, on our own in Anytown, USA. Coshocton, Wanblee, Elwood, Machias, Baggs, Zelienople, Ringling, Niobrara, Conway.  We carried everything we needed in four saddle bags.  A modern-day Joad family, what we couldn’t fit in the saddle bags we left behind or dangled off the back.  Our needs were reduced to only the basics—a place to sleep, safe roads and lots of food.  Sometimes while we were napping under a tree at a city park, relaxing with a magazine in a small town library, or eating cheese and mustard sandwiches in the shade of a road sign I would look around and wonder aloud “Where are we and how on did we ever get here?”  Now I wonder how I can get back.



1 comment:

  1. Wow...I thought I was the only person who has been to Baggs, Wyoming.
    Nice top five. It is hard to top the ride around the country, but I'll let you in on some memories anyway. I really enjoyed my time in Broomfield, CO. wehre I first learned to ride. I'll never forget as a six year old giving my sister a ride to work (she was 16) on my bike, or the time my other sister who was on a "new" (they were never really new) bike that was way to big for her, I was crossing the street, I fell, and she ran over my face and I lost my front teeth, other than that no harm was done. I remember the rides on my bmx bike to Clarks food store, where they had a huge candy isle. The dinasour eggs were the best. Great fuel for that ride home, of course we always took the back way down Crane Hollow Rd, but thats a story for another time...

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