Essay: On Getting Out There

(2015) Without a particular event on the horizon, without adequate daylight to do something randonnuer- related, and without a stable holiday schedule, getting any ride in can be difficult. Today was one of those days. Still having to report to the office I felt a ride would slip by frustratingly. It was unseasonably warm. It was also the day before Thanksgiving in America.  

I must confess riding this time of year worries me. Its reason is something I experience on each drive home now that Daylight Saving Time has been implemented. I worry about the glare of a setting sun and its reflection off the road. I had gotten home with enough time to beat it around the old route, but would the glare be an issue?

I logged onto my creakybottombracket Instagram account and flicked my thumb upwardly at all the pages. Here and there were postings about how people walk out of work prior to a four-day weekend. Some other accounts post about how exciting Thanksgiving is (a holiday where you’re encouraged to eat). But the posts I liked were the ones involving the thankfulness of those who managed to get out and ride today. Well, except for me.

There had to be a wonderful excuse to prevent me from getting around the area. I hadn’t had coffee since this morning. The glare. This is a notorious time for people to booze up with old friends so who knows what condition the drivers would approach from all directions. But they were all beat back by pages excited to ride today.

So I did it. I got out there. It was glorious. It was liberating.

I had managed the workday. I had managed the shopping center crowds (two in fact). I had managed the home needs. And here I was pedaling with gusto down familiar roads. I had learned a couple weeks ago my rotation direction around the loop matters: I decided to ride into the sunset to get it out of the way. I would come back heading to the west without an extra worry of sun blindness from drivers behind me.

There are many things to be thankful for, big and small. This was a small one. With a four-day weekend commencing for us in America, I hope you get a chance to enjoy an unexpected ride. Knowing the cycling community, that would create an experience of thankfulness.

Cover photo lifted from Bicycling Magazine's website. It is not mine and I do not own the rights to it.