I’m sitting on the back porch fueling up–oatmeal with banana today.
Thinking of my rocky ride on dirt roads, so challenging, yet so fun,
It is a joy to be healthy enough to work and ride my bicycle so hard.
After a long, fatiguing trek today, chai and breakfast are satisfying,
Now I’m refreshed and invigorated, ready for the rest of my day.
It looks like my e-bike battery finished charging too.
I had fun with my cherita today. I hope when you read that last line, you maybe had a bit of my former attitude about e-bikes. I used to think electric-motored, pedal-assisted transportation was cheating. The first time (and only time before this year) that I rode one was on a Lime bike in Seattle a few years ago. I thought it was magical and like I didn’t have to work at all.
Then I moved to the desert, where loose sand, rocky paths, steep hills, dirt roads and more greeted me on my bicycle rides. Those first months, it was a major workout for me to ride three miles on my regular bicycle. Then we got e-bikes, and I’ve learned that they really can give a great workout! Now, I encounter all of the same road difficulties, but I have help. I can ride 15 or 20 miles, for an hour or two at a time. I often push myself to use less power than last time. I am getting stronger. An added bonus are the occasional “fuel” stops we make while out on our rides–donuts, Starbucks, or breakfast out.
During each day in the months of August and September, I am responding to a different word from Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. Today’s word is Fuel. I had fun taking the word “fuel” literally, rather than metaphorically, as Charles Waters did on page 40 in Dictionary for a Better World. A small group of people wanting to make the world a better place are reading and responding together. Join us! Visit Common Threads: Patchwork Prose and Verse by Kim Haynes Johnson for more information. Here is the word list I’ll be following for August and September.
Denise, you in the lime green shirt on the lime green bike is priceless. I love the smile – and what a perfect way to describe fuel today – – fuel for the body in breakfast and bikes, food for the soul in the outdoor fun that takes us into God’s beautiful world. When we were camping recently, our friends brought their e-bikes and offered us rides. I declined, but my speedster husband was hooked! He flew all over F. D. Roosevelt State Park in Georgia, slowing down for dogs and people out walking just enough to be polite. What a fun post! Makes me want to come to sunny California and take a ride with you.