The Ride

"Dear God, why are there gnats?"  My silent yet very heartfelt prayer offered up tonight around dusk as I approached White Rock Lake.  At this point I had come to the realization the only way I could make it past this stretch of the trail was to cover my face, fingers slightly spread, with one hand and hold on to the bike handle with the other.  Lord help whoever might be in my way because I couldn't see ****.  Unintended consequence. 

People who have known me for a LONG time have known that I am generally an active person, people who have known me since college, less active, and people who have known me for the past year now know I like to ride my bike.  (Follow the trail there if you can...hint: I got lazy in college)  It is not a "road" bike as they say, but just a general run of the mill mountain bike.  It has gears, front shocks, and a chain that I manage to dechain quite often. (buy gloves with fingers)  It gets me from point A to point B, and lets me experience the outdoors at a faster pace than walking.  Since the beginning of Summer I have put almost 700 miles on it (people with road bikes, just smile).  I have taken it to Florida, Austin, and covered most all of downtown Dallas.  It is simply, my escape. 

My normal ride during the week has me leave my apartment, head east on surface streets and ride about a mile over to the Katy Trail.  I pick the trail up, ride it all the way south to the American Airlines Center then turn around head north and ride to the end of the trail just south of Mockingbird lane.  I once again turn around ride south the length of the trail and then slightly north to exit where I got on.  From door to door it is about 12 miles and takes me around 45 minutes. 

I like this ride during the week because it is simple, well known to me, and routine.  I know the exact route, I know how long it will take, and I know for the most part what I will see on my ride.  Lots of people that look just like me.  There is nothing extraordinary about this ride.  I can ride it on cruise control.  It is a great stress reliever, but in the world of excitement it is very Vanilla.  There is the occasional "odd" sight (cowgirl who lost her horse, but had the outfit on in case she found it, old man in what I hope was a small Speedo on a large bike, and lady with pig tails and the biggest tricycle I have ever seen) but nothing you would get scared of or even cause you to really stop and think.

Today I wanted a change.  I wanted variety, not my run of the mill normal Vanilla route.  I wanted my "urban" route.  This is the route I take on weekends when I want a slightly longer ride and to see a different part of town, and by different, one where the buildings have bars on the windows and razor wire makes a nice accessory along the tops of fences.   I would not say that this is really a dangerous neighborhood or area, just more colorful.  The thing is the trail that runs through it is actually my favorite of all the ones in Dallas.  It's called the Sante Fe and it runs from Downtown Dallas to White Rock Lake.  It is wide, not heavily traveled, and much more scenic.  In order to get to this trail during the work week though, I have to ride 3 miles of surface streets as dark approaches.  Not a big deal to me, but I can always hear my mother's voice, "is that the smartest thing to be doing as it gets dark?" 

Tonight I ignored the motherly voice in my head and decided I would turn on my awesome blinking lights, strap up my helmet and slow down traffic for all those tired people heading home from work.  I do stay to the far right, but I refuse to ride on the sidewalk.  I like to feel that I am on a real vehicle and part of traffic like an adult. :)  As I made my way to the trail I passed by lots of people.  The variety was definitely greater than my normal ride.  It wasn't the familiar "Vanilla" crowd and I had time to think and reflect about the differences between the people I was currently passing and the people I normally passed.  The foot traffic gradually picked up as I made the trail and headed north towards White Rock Lake.  Now for those of you from Dallas you know the difference between foot traffic picking up on the Sante Fe Trail and foot traffic picking up on the Katy Trail is like the difference between traffic flow on the Tollway on weekends and traffic flow on 75 during the week.  There really is no comparison between the two, but there were definitely more people on the Sante Fe Trail tonight then I had ever seen at one time before.  It made me feel alive and part of the city, it also made me aware of the diversity of the city I live in.  I would be lying if I said there weren't a few times that I didn't feel a little uncomfortable when cruising through certain areas, but at the same time I felt like I was out experiencing something new and exciting. 

"Dear God, why are there gnats?"  I have come to the conclusion after my ride that there are gnats to keep things fresh and us on our toes.  I can go through life and do the same routine everyday.  I can never look at anything different or make myself uncomfortable, and I can lead a very dull life.  The other option is I can take a route that is unknown.  This route may have gnats and it may make me uncomfortable at times, but it will push me in ways I didn't know I needed to be pushed.  It will provide excitement, confusion, questioning, and even fear, but in the end it will give me quite the ride.  I don't know which route I will take tomorrow, but I definitely know I'll try and learn something new from wherever it leads me.

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