Showing posts with label riding without a destination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label riding without a destination. Show all posts

08 January 2019

You're Not Lost!

Over the years, I have read many articles and posts that list reasons for riding a bicycle:  everything from saving the planet to improving your sex life.  Perhaps, as someone who loves cycling, I am biased, but I believe that I have yet to find a reason that isn't valid.  In the end, though, I ride for one reason:  I love it.



But I continue to read the lists.  A couple of days ago, I came across one in, interestingly, Forbes magazine.  The author provided 45 reasons to get on a bike in 2019. I've heard most of them before, but one in particular caught my eye--#10, "Get Lost":

It's stressful to get lost in a car--especially one with up-to-date stat nav--but it's generally less stressful to get lost on a bike.  It's easier to explore on a bicycle, following one's nose rather than following a hectoring voice taking orders from a bunch of satellites in the sky.

There's also something about a bicycle that lends itself to serendipity--ride a bike to explore more.

Here, Carlton Reid explains why folks like me get on our bikes with no particular destination or route in mind.  Sometimes I just want to see, hear and feel whatever may come, and the bicycle is the best way (that I know about, anyway) to do that.  

I know I've written about "getting lost".  What I meant is that I strayed from routes I planned or knew beforehand and was pedaling through unfamiliar territory.  I have been "lost" in my hometown at midday as well as in places where I couldn't even speak the local language--if indeed there were even beings that spoke--after night fell.  

Mr. Reid would no doubt understand this:  At such times, I don't feel lost.  In fact, I felt more certain of where I was (if not where I was going) than I did while commuting to at least a couple of jobs I've had.  I daresay that, really, I have never been truly lost on my bicycle. At least, I have never felt that way.