The last 2 days we had terrible weather (well, it wasn’t snowing, so it depends how bad you want to ride). But this morning, what do you know. Sunny! Too bad I got lazy in the last 2 rainy days and now I have so many things to do. So I quietly started the laptop, making self notes about doing the work in rainy days to keep the sunny days for play.
That is until I opened up Facebook and saw one of my biker friends status: “gone riding!”. Well, you know me, it took exactly 25 minutes to gear up and ready to ride. Including 15 minutes to find a place to ride to. But I know a trick. When you don’t know where to ride, open Google Maps and look for Panoramio pictures. Like here:
And here we go, all set to a path of discovery. Where is this place? How does it really look like? And most importantly how is the ride there?
Once you start riding you get into a “path to discovery”. Not that these places weren’t discovered before, they were always there, just 5 km from the highway, living in a parallel World outside the World of 9 to 5 job, malls, TV and what we call modern life. Or what we believe it’s life, but it really isn’t.
If you get really lucky, you’ll get lost. But that’s ok, getting lost means freedom. Freedom to get away from the path, get outside what’s “right”. I guess I’m a bit luckier that most Western European riders. Just 60km from my dual wireless home with 3G internet connection, HD TV, Romania gets rural. Very rural.
I think this little guy is posing for me.
Chickens. Not even what the modern World calls eco chickens. Real chickens running free. Real life.
And the lake. Google maps, but for real.
Back in 2007, my mom got upset (I think) when I bought my third bike, the CBF600s. Why do you need 3 bikes? Well, 70.000 km later, the CBF taught me about life more than anything else. And yes, I crashed and broke my leg in the process. But I get now that life is more than following the paths. Life it’s about friends, knowing people and places. It’s about pain and happiness. It’s about experiencing feelings, sometimes good, sometimes bad. It’s about getting real.
What do you know. This little ride, an afternoon ride, turned out to be a 250kms ride. And about feelings. About being real.
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