This past week I biked on the San Gabriel River Path with my spouse.
We had such a great time.
I highly recommend it.
Today I started googling it and came across some bikers who had been accosted by some people just looking for trouble.
As I was biking I told my husband it felt like a movie waiting to be made. A Robert Altman film, if he were alive.
Here we were on our pricey bikes during the middle of the day cruising along. Cruising along past some houses that made you happy to have your own home. One man in a tank top had some bottles in a bag and headed down to the water at one point.
But mostly it was just a very, very cool ride. Filled with all of the wonderment LA can offer you. There was literally a Latino riding a horse, training an-untrained horse below the 10 freeway. It blew my mind. Almost every biker we passed said good morning.
Anyways, I came across a thread where some bikers had been threatened by some guys up to no good, my mind had drifted to that place while biking. My husband and I agreed there was a rough patch. I would be very scared if that ever happened. Very, very, very.
But then I was thinking about how every day some mom or dad, in their fancy SUV tailgates me on the freeway, threatening my life and my kids.
What's the difference?
I have to assume more then half of the tailgaters are educated people who go home to comfortable houses. Yet, they choose to drive right behind others and threaten them.
What's the difference between that kind of threat and the more brazen threat of some thugs?
Oh yeah, the other people can hide behind their cars.
I really did think about this because it scared me a bit when I read that about the bike trail.
There is danger in everything yet we so conveniently categorize some danger as acceptable.
The beauty in this trail is you could bike for so long without worrying about cars you could get lost. Lost in your mind. It was wonderful. It reminded me of how much I loved to bike.
Once, in Okoboji, Iowa, when I was around 20, I went on a day bike by myself and suddenly in a field to the right of me were a bunch of deer. I must have spooked them and they began running in the same direction I biked.
It was such an exhilarating moment, flying alongside them.
I want to bike more , I won't ride on the streets with cars but I'm looking forward to more trails.
