Category: Bicycle Riding

A warm day in winter…

Spring is a month away… but the weather has been warm enough think winter’s day is done.  As much as I enjoy the cool but warm day… it seems to early to see flowers and trees with green leaves.  I will go with the flow and hope the summer does not continue this trend of heat and just enjoy the nice of nice days and nights.

1959 Hermes 8 Standard

Good attracts good…

Picked up my bike, and the bike shop reduced my bill by 50%… I did not get upset that I had driven 84 miles and my bike was not ready.  I did not ask anything but they took on themselves to only charge for parts.  One of the reason’s I stay with them.  I did right by them, they did right by me.  (Passing thought, people think that by yelling and making demands gets results.  When I worked at a restaurant, a customer made a big deal about his dinner and wanted it done over…. it was a spaghetti dinner.  The head cook, dipped into a pot of steaming hot spaghetti sauce, poured it over the dinner and sent it back.  The customer was happy…)

1959 Hermes 8 Standard

How great we are…

I am one of those who believe that the United States is a great country that needs to improve and grow to become even greater.  Perhaps the gaps in perceptions would be less if those with so much… realized just how much they have… and those who have so little; did not have to hear about all the things others feel have been lost.

It may be silly to think I can ride a bicycle across a state and feel safe and secure.  I believe that anyone with a bicycle regardless of color or creed of type of bike will feel the same joys I do.  Eat the same buttered corn on the cob and feel the friendly feeling that the plain folks of Iowa have for guests.  This is America to me.

There have been times as I drove to Iowa that I have been followed by the police… more times than I can count for long periods of time and this is America as well.  I know both worlds; the kind and the not-so.  I value the kind more.

The America of today is full of people who have opportunity and rewards far beyond what my parents could imagine.  An Uncle of mine had dreams of being a elevator operator… and his peers felt he was being “uppity” because only “whites” were allowed to push the elevator buttons back in the day when America was greater.  I know I could have any job I wanted… that I could achieve all my goals because during that time when America was great… great people like my father could not go for dreams they sought because of someone saying a person of color would not/could not do or be allowed such work.

Perhaps if we understood this improvement in out society…. and accepted it as the greatest of all achievements… the gaps between us would be easier to bridge and communication would flow with ease.  No need to shout and have no one hear;  we would just be the same citizens after the same goals of equality and justice for all.

But then I don’t think big… just how to ride a bike across Iowa… where I heard someone say: “Is this heaven?”… “Just Iowa”…

1917 Woodstock 4
1917 Woodstock 4