A few reasons why I love to ride a bicycle

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. - John Steinbeck

One of the things that you learn on a bike ride of any length (even the local training rides) is that delightful things appear when you expect them least. And you look back and treasure them on those dark rainy days when stuck inside.

Riding my BikeFriday out in the Chilterns, being passed by a car full of 11 year-old boys, and having them sing "Bicycle Race" (Disc 1, track 5) from Queen.

Being a few hundered feet up on the banks of the Eel River in Northern California and having an eagle fly by about 10 feet away from me.

Stopping in the forest to see listen to the birds (and sometimes just the silence)

Stopping by the side of the road in Nevada and watching a dust devil and rolling sagebrush.

Seeing young animals in the wild... rabbits, calves, sheep, wild turkeys, elk, bobcats, groundhogs, and squirrels. And the look that people give me when I give the wildlife report.

The long sweet descent on a road bike after a multi-thousand foot climb.

The roller-coaster like thrill of doing little roller hills on a mountain bike (when you let loose of your speed near the bottom of the down, knowing that you'll bleed it off on the uphill, even if it is just a bit too fast).

Seeing a drove of pigs in a field in Los Gatos. When I head up the road next to the field, the large tusked males with the hair up on their back stand guard, letting the piglets and sows cross the road back into the woods to get away from the threat of me.