It's bike-to-work month at Mountain Gear, the outdoor retailer where I work. I have an old steel frame LeMond that I have been riding to work. It's 12 miles almost on the dot from my house to the office. For those 12 miles in the morning and after work I'm free to think about life as it passes by.
The chilly spring air is cool on my face. Rolling out from the driveway I always make a point of looking over to the field where a group of wild turkeys graze in the early morning. I'm crazy for the "big fan" turkey. Its big tail feathers open and close so perfectly its hypnotizing.
There's a bakery that I pass on my way to work, the smell of donuts crawls into every part of my nose. Its like breathing in a sea of wonderful calories. The cars and trucks speed past me until I am able to find a side street or the centennial trail which follows along the spokane river. There are a few runners and an old lady I see in the same stretch of trail every morning. We smile at each other now. Knowing that the sun is making us become summer socialites, if only for that morning moment.
A small stretch along the river is an abandon dirt path. I could find another way on some busy street but i always prefer this way, it reminds me of walking in Spain. I had the great fortune of passing a man with a weathered face and nomadic eyes the other morning. We looked at each other. I was decked out in nerdy bike gear, he was pushing his existence on wheels, yet there was this split second where our eyes connected and we nodded at each other, a silent hello as dawn became day along the quiet flow of the river.
For all these reasons I love biking to work, well that and it reminds me of my time with Lyudmila.
1 comment:
You have the “eyes of an eagle” to locate and get that good suburban turkey picture.
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