Nine years ago today, I started this blog in much the same way I start many of my rides: I had a general idea of the journey I was undertaking, but I had no idea of where it would take me along the way.
About all I really knew when I published that first post was that I'd be writing about me and bicycling. And, I supposed, anything related to them--which, of course, is open to very wide interpretation.
So, if you've been following this blog, you've heard me ramble or rant about any and all sorts of things: history, art, architecture, literature, New York, Paris, food, gender and more. If you'd told me, for instance, that I would try to explain how a certain molecule works, I might have wondered whether you were partaking of substances that have only recently become legal, and only in a few states!
The fact that I write such posts (however ineptly) might be the reason why I've kept this blog going. While I never imagined writing a post like that one, or some of the others I wrote, I also knew that this blog could not simply be a recounting of my rides or a discussion of equipment.
I realize now that this blog has become a forum for my experience of bicycles and cycling. Whatever I see when I ride, what I think about when I'm adjusting my derailleur, what I recall from rides past, and the things I've learned about everything from urban panning to music as a result of my rides, are all part of my cycling experience.
Really, I can't think of much that doesn't relate to bicycles or bicycling. At least, there aren't many things in my life that I can separate from my experience of cycling. So, I expect that as long as I continue to write this blog, it will take twists and turns I never expected.
Thank you, dear reader, for taking the journey with me. I'm not done yet!
