Sunday Drive

Last week I went for a Sunday drive. Well, actually, it was a solo bike ride on a beautiful day.

But much like that old image of the Sunday drive to nowhere that I remember my granddad or mom telling me about, it had the same feel. Actually, it also is reminiscent of some of my solo ventures in my Mom's car after getting my driver's license. Just being out in the world, with no where to go, just seeing the sights. Time was a non-entity!

As I was meandering down neighborhoods I'd not ever been to on my 11 mile bike ride, I was reminded of simpler days. Days of my childhood. A time before bike helmets, when the wind whipped through my hair. When I had free reign to bike all over the place to go to my friends' houses. I can see in my mind's eye the stack of bikes that landed in my friends' yards as we ran all around the neighborhoods, jaunting down secret sidewalks, prancing in the sprinkler, or going inside for popsicles and air-conditioning. A time when we were all "unplugged."

It has an overwhelming body-feeling of both summertime and "freedom."

Sadly my kids don't have that kind of neighborhood to freely ride about in. We're a small 2 street neighborhood that backs into some crowded roads. As they're older, they can navigate this better, or we just throw the bikes in the truck and go to a park with trails and that satisfies the biking bill well. But the freedom isn't the same.

But, I guess the times aren't the same either. Which is both good and bad... and definitely worth pondering on a bike ride.

Speaking of which, the wind is blowing through my hair as I write this outside on a gorgeous day. I think I hear my bike calling me. I think that means it's time to close my computer and head for a Sunday drive, here on a Saturday!


Images from https://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/a31817529/with-no-particular-place-to-go/ and Kennedy quote created at Canva.com