Originally Posted by Prowler

I'm spoiled by the variety of bike trails around here so I choose not to deal with the car traffic youse all have discussed. I'm sure ours is just the same. So, since I don't have to deal with em I ride with my ear buds and my MP3 player stocked with acoustic music. Set the volume just above wind noise and roll thru the forest, often following a stream or river. I find that just about the time I'm no longer chilly - up to riding temperature - I've also dropped all thoughts of daily life, the future and the past. I can spend time just living in the moment. Maybe the Engineer in me makes that pretty rare but 'living in the moment' is pretty rare when not riding. Its a compelling experience: thinking of nothing, solving no problems, pondering no imponderables, fixing nothing that needs fixing, not planning to resolve recent mistakes, not evaluating candidates, not selecting routes or schedules or nuttin. Just riding, waltzing the pedals (3 downstrokes/second), watching the trees and the rippling water, tracking the clouds and sun. Nice