The Never Ending Path and Bicycles!!

The sun is beating
heating skin up
hot like summer
barbecues is backyards
of neighbors I will never know.

The smell of sandy shores
at oceans edge
and sun-screened children
soaking up the sun
just as castles made of sand do.

And today I cannot find
the cool breeze
even as i pedal further
beneath the green canopies
leading me away from the city.

The neverending path-
the best a bicycle can offer-
of wishes hopes and dreams
manifest in sweat and 21 gears
it seems I could push on forever.

Freedom is a cool blue lake
the falling leaves
(before they lie yellow on the path)
the smell of fresh cut grass
(before it is swept aside as I ride by)
the sound of wheels rushing
the thought that anything is possible
as I weave through the thick of traffic.

Flight on a bike
A dip in the lake
This path could never end.

The heat is killing us all in Seattle, but the minute it starts to get cloudy the complainers do their worst.  I heard them today, begging for cool mercy.  I chuckle and wonder what the world was like for weather-challenged individuals before the advent of air-conditioning and central heating; God knows those folks love them both.  I think we're too comfortable.  I'll just say the hill back home sure ain't.  I once heard biking described as a sport born out of "pure pain."  Call me sadomasochistic but it's hard to love anything as much as your bicycle.  Gives you heat when you're cold, cools ya down when you're hot (just gotta make your own wind :) and gets you places.  It's the most efficient, most effective means of transportation we human beings have ever figured out.  And it sure as hell is fun!  Here's to a hundred miles in four days and a few hundred (thousand?) more to come!

So to all the naysayers, get outside...and quit complaining!!  The weather is what it is :))

Sean

ps- Darcy I hope your trip is going suuuuuuuuper well over in Europe.  Was watching the Tour today and thought of ya!!  I'm pretty jealous...wore that Bbox hat the other day too  :P  ¡¡Mucha suerte con los niños!!