If you have spent any time around me or reading this blog then you already know I like being outside. That often makes my life a little frustrating. As a teacher I spend most of the daylight hours inside. Unlike those hip college professors, I do not find it a good idea to take 9th graders outside for class. So, I sit in my classroom wishing I could be outside enjoying the day. Because I get to school before the Sun comes up, spend a full day inside these walls, it is raining when I get home and it gets dark way too soon this time of year, I tend to get a bit crabby. My good friend Shawn and I email each other several times a week, and sometimes several times a day when the kids are taking a test(the most boring days for teachers are test days. 8 hours of staring blanlky at kids filling in bubbles). He shared a story with me that he too was feeling the crabbying effects of being cooped up at work and at home and one thing the helps to improve his mood is some quality time on his bike. This time of year he is spending alot of time on his bike trainer(the contraption you put your bike on so you can ride inside) and how no matter how crabby he is when he begins there seems to be a "regenerative power" that comes from time spent in the saddle. The following is my email reply to him on the topic of the joy of cycling.
So, it seems your email got to me. I usually fall asleep seconds after my head hits the pillow. Last night Kelley was in for a rare treat(hubba hubba) as I would on at length about your email and how it reminded me of how much I have always loved riding a bike. How, as a kid I was always the 1st one to hit the neighborhood streets looking for other lads to play with. Often, no one else was up and about, blinds were still closed and the neighborhood was still and calm. Some of those days i rode back home to watch saturday morning cartoons, but, most of those days I just rode. I rode up and down the streets of the neighborhood, up to the high school, up to the highway, through the trails in the woods, I just rode....as far as my youthful and tireless legs would pedal me and imagination would inspire me. Some days I was Cru Jones, some I was Greg LeMond, other days I was "Chip's" or Evel Kneivel. The possibilites were endless as my bike provided me the freedom and means to go as far as the borders of the lake, bayou, and highway would allow. The world seemed open and enornous, yet everything felt within reach. My world at that time wasn't that big. South Slidell is only a few square miles, but it was the whole world to me, and on my that old Schwinn I knew every corner of the map.
1985 Schwinn Predator EX-FreeFrom
Best Christmas present I ever got!!!
I still have it,but not in as great of condition as the one pictured.
I still feel the same. I love getting up on a Saturday or Sunday morning and pedalling through Baton Rouge, finding new routes through town, passing by the Kress building on 3rd street and wondering what the lunch counter sit-ins were like there in the early 60's, riding through LSU's campus and smelling all the wonderful tailgate foods on the grill and in the pot. Getting on top the levee and imagining what it would be like to ride the Mississippi from Minnestoa to the Gulf of Mexico and considering the history that that river has seen. Riding to a place called Alligator Bayou, where there are actual alligators in the bayou. I love taking my bike up to St. Francisville to put in a few miles on the "hills" of the Feliciana parishes. Riding with new groups and meeting new people, from the saddle of my trusty steed my explorations and adventures continue.
I love cycling so much that there is a new plan in the works for the week of memorial day when Shawn and I will be making a 450 mile 5 day trip from Baton Rouge east to Mobile, then north to Hattiesburg and west to McComb, MS before completing the loop back to Baton Rouge. To be successful on this trip there will have to be a lot of training. We wil be averaging about 90 miles a day. luckily for me I love riding my bike. If you live along or near the rout and want to join us for a few miles and share in the advevture we would love the see you. I'll share more details at the trip gets closer.
Till then... pedal on, friends!
