I have been riding several "test rides" on my newly built fixed gear bicycle. One particular ride was thought-provoking. It wasn't that long, only around 120 kilometers.
I found myself on an old bridge which is more than 100 years old. I stopped there and started thinking how different life must have been back then. In some sense it's probably not have been that different, but at least the pace of life has been much different what we're used to.
My bicycle is in the old bridge, behind you're seeing the new bridge used today by cars and trucks. Think about it for awhile. We used to travel by foot and with horse and carriage. Of course on horseback too. Nowadays you may travel 80 kilometers in an hour. That kind of travelling was not possible nor it was needed on regular basis. Living was more local.
Small towns connecting people
Back in history big cities were not that common. Often they were far away and to travel to them would have been days and days of travelling on long gnarly roads. Small towns (with just few houses in them) were the places for gathering, meeting people and share news and whatnot.
Sometimes this is the case even in today. There are a lot of small towns with some kind of "city center" in them. It might be an inn or it might a small shop. Or even a church. In any case it's a place where people meet, share their daily news and talk to each other. Sadly, often nowadays it's only the older generation of people doing that. I think us, the younger generation, should cherish story telling way more than we do.
River of Dreams
Water as an element is interesting. It's something that seems to be very random but it's not. At least when it comes to the water flow in a river. I'll always become somewhat nostalgic when I see a beautiful river calmly flowing by. It feels like the flow contains memories of something. The exactly timed flow of the water seems so purposeful yet free from any expectations. It seems like the water could do anything, yet it can't. Just like us humans in our own bubbles of arbitrary truths.
There's an old abandoned gold mine fairly near this river (in the picture above). Just wondering how much happy and sad memories are "drown" in to the flow of this river. People getting rich by finding gold, people who lost everything because of hunting the dream of a motherload.
It's so peaceful riding a fixed gear bike for long periods of time on early spring countryside roads and just let your mind to wonder while pedaling. Just like the rivers of the world keep flowing through the time.
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