Blackberry

Since spring is the season of renewal and Easter/Passover are the holidays of renewal, I decided that I would go for a ride of renewal today.

As some of you guys may remember, I'm nursing a recovering back, so my plan was to go 25 miles or so on a somewhat hilly loop, but slowly and always be in a gear lower than normal. I took my touring bike, with an extra low granny and off I went.

I've ridden this loop dozens of times, usually at a fairly hard pace (at least for me). But by going slowly and actually enjoying the sights, sounds and scents of a spring morning, I felt like I was seeing the scenery for the first time. In fact, I couple of times, I thought I might be lost. It was beautiful to "see with new eyes" and I felt very grateful to back in the saddle.

I'm hoping I can keep this attitude. It's gonna be awhile before I'm ready to hammer.

stapfam

I hope you can aswell. This weekend- I did my neighbour ride- and I went at a far lower pace than I normally would. Saw sites on that cycle trail that I never knew were there. It is decorated at various points with wooden sculpture- appropriate to the area. I knew they were there of course- but never looked at them before. They are fantastic. You have to look out for them though as some of them are well disguised.
I have now been talked into taking the neighbours kids out once a month- hopefully with a parent or two in tow. Those kids I took out friday really enjoyed it and they showed me that there is more to just hammering up the trails- Head down trying to get the ride over and done with.

GrannyGear

Glad feelings for you Blackberry.....renewal, continuance, and hope are an underlying message of Easter. Good to be back, huh!?

Meantime, its raining buckets at the moment here....but my two kids are in for the weekend so I'm holed up happily...and tomorrow sun is promised...and the Central Valley fields are still emerald green.

Happiness spreads....but yours is special.

hammerdocnomo

Every morning I check to see how my inflamed area is doing, and each day it seems a bit smaller. In fact, today it was noticably smaller, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.


Big Paulie?? I think not! With that description of your problem, I'll never ***** again and you, son, need to change your nom de guerre to LITTLE PAULIE. Ha!

Digital Gee

+1!!!

Light at the end of the tunnel!

Digital Gee

Big Paulie, you simply need to be more specific. What light, and how much, and which tunnel?

berts

Wishing you full recovery and enjoyable riding for many years to come.

pastorbobnlnh 

Blackberry? Big Paulie? Or Digital Gee?

jppe

Blackberry-great post. That's a terrific message and there's some wonderful advice for us all. Another great example of what can come out of spending quality time in the saddle.

I worry I get too anal on focused results and lose sight of the pure joy of riding......it's really helpful to step back occassionally just to take it all in.

Note to self: Change the focus of your ride on occassion-you just might be surprised at the wonder and awe that presents itself at the most unsuspecting times......

cyclintom

Blackberry is becoming an old fart! Neener, neener, neeeeeeeeeeeener.

GrannyGear

Nah. Blackberry's not grumpy enough yet....maybe someday.

Digital Gee

Blackberry,

My apologies for Big Paulie hijacking your thread. Okay, for ME hijacking the thread. What I also wanted to say was how terrific it always is to hear ride reports like yours which serve as great reminders of some of the more important reasons we're out there, which some of us, okay, I, forget from time to time. It's not just about how many miles, but the quality of those miles, and it sounds like your QM (quality meter) maxxed out on this ride.

Way to go!!!

p8rider

Blackberry - That's a nice ride report. I think sometimes any ride report is good!
Because of the holiday I didn't get to ride this weekend. I thought I had it figured out for Sunday afternoon. I invited my 12 year old son to ride with me out in the country, but he turned me down in favor of some new handheld computer game. I had hoped he would come because otherwise I really needed to stay at the house and begin doing some massive clean up work with my wife as our home nears the end of a major renovation project, (dust, dirt and grit everywhere we had moved from the house for the project and covered all the furniture rolled up the carpets etc. but the mess is so huge it is almost too much to figure just where to start)

Anyway, so I had hoped to duck that work and enjoy a ride with my son. I like these rides in particular because I do ride much slower and really enjoy the surroundings. Just my longwinded way of saying I can relate to your seeing things with new eyes.

Keep it going!