Happy Trails, Bob! (Bike trails)

[Bob, I'm understanding you better and better.]

Bob Sharpe is a friend I've never met, but we've talked on the phone and support each others' writing and lots of good stuff like that.

While I've known Bob, I've lived in Lubbock and I think he's lived in 47 different places. He seems to be on a quest to find a great place for a cyclist to live and ride. His most recent home (and one that looks like it may be THE one) is a tiny town in Iowa that happens to be right on a 100 mile bike trail. Yep, 100 miles of car-less and truck-less getting about on a bike. Imagine that! He writes about it often. Sometimes I read with envy. Sometimes I worry about his sanity.

Over the last year, I have traveled very little, but I have been taking a bike with me whenever I can. I've gotten to ride in New Mexico (Cloudcroft and Alamogordo) and more recently I've pedaled part of a Rails-to-Trails path in Quitaque, Texas and a linear park in Mansfield, Texas.

The funky folder at the trailhead in Mansfield

And I am definitely getting it. The pleasure of getting to ride without the ever-present wariness of being mowed down by an F-250 or an Escalade is heady stuff. And being in a quiet place with fewer fumes and more fur and feathers, what a way to start or spend a day!

What a treat this little park is!

Lots of vicious fauna hopping about

Spandex? We don't own no stinking spandex!

The Caprock Trail is much more demanding and rewarding. We saw lots of deer, roadrunners, and even a javelina in a hurry. 

We rode the first 17 miles

  100 year-old railroad tunnel

(Holy bat poop, Batman, it smells like guano in here!)

It's given me a new perspective on biking. Most of my riding is done on the street in a town where there's very little biking infrastructure and no protected bike lanes. I still love to ride here. But the pleasure I feel in on a bicycle is definitely magnified when I'm on a bike trail.  Less worry and more joy. Yep, I could get hooked.

Keep pedaling Bob, and I will keep reading.

May the rest of you find less worry and more joy!