I Have Pedaled

The privilege of bicycle adventures across decades fill me with gratitude

Gap of Dunloe, County Kerry, Ireland

I have pedaled a hundred miles along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam.

I have bicycled past elite long-distance runners of the Kalenjin tribe training on the roads near Eldoret, Kenya.

I have ridden to far flung 19th-century wooden churches, restored as a collective UNESCO World Heritage Site, on Chiloe island in Chile.

I’ve been chased by a pack of wild dogs (dohls) on a hilltop plateau in central India.

I have ridden solo for days along the Irish coast with mystic Skelig Michael in view.

Hell's Gate National Park, Kenya

I’ve glided along rural Dutch canals and navigated Amsterdam’s busy bikeways.

I’ve pedaled for a week beside the Allegheny and Potomac Rivers to climb the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Riding along Highway 1, I’ve taken in the California Pacific coast and stopped a while to watch surfers at Morro Rock.

I’ve climbed West Virginia trails on a mountain bike and rolled along it’s winding, hilly byways on a road bike.

I’ve followed the Mississippi River for a week through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

A rural road in India

I rode 100 miles from Chicago to Wisconsin and back one day along Lake Michigan.

These and more fill my mind and warm my heart with gratitude.

And yet, there are many possible bicycle adventures to contemplate.

Glacier, Yosemite, Sequoia, Camino de Santiago, le Alpe d’Huez, the Underground Railroad, Canada to Mexico, Cairo to Capetown, China’s Great Wall, Japan’s hilly byways, Bogota to Caracas, Portland to Baltimore…

Unexplored trailways in Indiana alone could consume the rest of my days.

I dream and I plan and I ride my bicycle wherever the pathways invite me--whether across the city or across the world.