Thursday, April 24, 2008

On Another Reason why I Ride

So there I go,
out to ride my beautiful bicycle today.

It was cloudy during the morning hours of the day
but cleared off into some scatterings of sun here and there.
I get home from class and its that time,
time for the scheduled ride
and, yet, the couch was sooo comfortable.

Alas, I said to myself
"you'll regret this if you don't!"

And off I rode.
Into the 15-20mph wind
and out to Ledges
did the climb and headed home

I must confess,
it was slightly torturous
I hadn't opened up the throttle like that, for 40 miles in a long time.

BUT


HERE'S THE BEST PART.

with about 7 miles left in the ride (3 of which are cooldown miles)
this white chevy lumina pulls out of a driveway
and starts driving in front of me.
Its an old gentleman, with a red farmers cap on.
I had a tail wind and was crouched down, holding a good 27mph on flat.
So when he came out
my first thought was "dang it! I hope you speed up sooooon so I don't have to slow down"

He did speed up....
but to about...30mph.
And he let me draft him for the next 4 miles.
It was AWESOME.

He had his window rolled all the way down, and would watch the fields
then look in the mirror, to see if I was there I would imagine,
then just...enjoy the weather, I suppose.
And just before the last little climb that goes to a bridge over the interstate...
He sticks up his right hand, does a little wave,
and takes off.

And for the second time in the past week,
I let a tear (of pure, genuine, sincere, honest) happiness
roll down my cheek.

I really can't explain to a soul how amazing it is
to have that feeling of self-reliance and independence.
To BE the picture of untrammelled womanhood...
And then for a stranger to come along
and without any selfishness in the world
to join you in it and make it Even better...
When you never even asked.

Thanks mr. farmer guy
Lord knows I ride that road enough...
so maybe we'll run into each other again.


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IN OTHER NEWS

Check out where FemBash has gone!!!!





1 comment:

Cycle Ninja said...

ROCK ON!!! I've had to resort to motor-pacing behind combines because of bonking, but you didn't even ask for the lift! Too bad it wasn't with that headwind...THAT would have been sweet.