Bike

Why do we say "drive a car" and "ride a bike"? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I mean, it takes a lot more effort to keep a bike moving on down the road; one's legs are actually driving the cranks round and round. In a car we more or less just sit there and stretch our ankles back and forth. There's no leaning into turns, no ducking into the wind. Cars pretty much drive themselves, and if there is more than just the driver inside, the others are certainly riders.

Anyway, I've been riding around Sugar Land for the past few weeks, and I think it's interesting that I've gone down street after street that I'd never been down before. We moved here when I was six, yet I'd never been in Venetian Estates before this week. I'd never really ridden around the mansion on Lakeview. I don't think I'd even ever been on some of the streets in my own neighborhood that I've found. It's like I'm on a voyage of discovery.

The other day I waited only ten feet away as a train barreled past. I've done that in a car hundreds of times, but standing in the open air on a bike—it was brand new.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but back in Athens I saw a real live fox one day while riding. I also saw a couple dozen chipmunks, a large bird of prey, and a five-foot-long snake that was stretch out width-wise in the middle of the trail. I swerved to avoid running over it, luckily making for the tail side rather than the head side. I also saw a bunch of Indian kids out in a field playing cricket.