No Bike, Just Walked Today

My kids volunteered for a school function, and they had to be at school at 5:30 in the morning. So there I was driving the kids to school on an early Saturday morning. The view from the apex of the toll road (45 going east) is spectacular. Round Rock and Pflugerville was spread out before us, and an eerie red-orange sliver of a moon was just coming up over the horizon. (That's why we have words like, "Wow.")

Anyway, I dropped them off and got some coffee and decided to stay up and do stuff. I did stuff. Then I wanted to get out and ride. The sun had not risen but it was light out. I don't know, I like to give myself an excuse to leave the house sometimes and I had a Red Box DVD I had to return. But instead of grabbing a bike, I walked straight out of the house and headed down the road toward 7-11.

It's important to know a road in a car. Or, rather, you get to know the roads you drive in your car. Every bump, crack and pothole is in your memory when you're behind the steering wheel. It's slower but the same is true on a bike. It takes longer, but eventually, the same would happen on foot.

Crows and starlings sang and watched me go by. The few people I saw out were all walking for exercise, and they were all around my age or older. (That probably means nothing.)



There and back, it was an easy walk. You certainly appreciate different aspects of a route depending on how you take it.