On Monday of this week I rode out to Kutztown, Topton and back through the rolling Pennsylvania countryside. It was a nice ride which allowed me to think about what I enjoy about bike riding and especially bike touring.
Bike touring engages all of your senses. Traveling by bike you see everything more slowly allowing you to observe much more. You feel the air, cool or warm, dry or damp. You hear the birds, the gurgling streams, the livestock - even the motor vehicles, key to self preservation. You smell the scent of honeysuckle, fresh plowed fields, barnyards. Once in a while you even get to taste an unfortunately placed bug - yuck!
During my ride I saw a flock of five guinea hens running alongside the road, perhaps residents of the nearby farm? I saw a large white-bellied hawk sitting on a high limb of a bare tree - looking for his next meal, no doubt.
To top off the experience, as I was riding back from Kutztown through the farmlands I came upon a farm tractor pulling an open trailer filled with manure. I laid back a couple hundred feet, not anxious to absorb the full experience. But there was no doubt as to the contents of the trailer. Fortunately within about a quarter mile the farmer pulled the tractor off the road. Then he started the giant corkscrew turning at the back of the trailer, depositing its contents onto the field as he went.
Now that's not something you get to fully experience as you fly down the highway in your car or RV. Just a reminder of why I love to ride.
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