Bayou Bliss

E is off doing jury duty today so I rode by myself. As much as I love riding with E and walking with K, they are mostly people on a mission: get there and get back. There is little dawdling, not much oogling and few long pauses for refreshment of the sight and soul. They do always pick lovely destinations with enchanting vistas but the goal is to ride or walk. Don't think I don't appreciate this admirable trait in them: they keep me on task and focused which I certainly need. BUT, I am, by nature, a dawdler and a gawker and, if I see something like the new berries on the side of path, I'd like to stop and touch them perhaps or see if they have a nice aroma or, at the least take a picture of them for remembrance.

When I walk with Kristen, I tell her to go on ahead. She wears a monitor and keeps her heart rate up etc. I meander and meet her on her way back. When I ride with E it is not always Speed Racer...we did stop for quite some time on the bike path bridge over the Anclote to watch the spoonbill roseate in the shallows. So I do get to stop and smell the roses so to speak from time to time and I do enjoy their company.

Which brings me, as usual, in a round about way, to my solo bike ride today to Spring Bayou here in town. Riding through town during the week is an adventure with the traffic but, once I get on the back streets, I'm safer. I rode to the bayou, got off my bike and ambled around the rim of bayou snapping shots as I went. What a joy...birds floating on the water, long wisps of Spanish Moss wafting in the breeze, a fish jumping now and then and a boat slowing circling the basin...yummy! My soul is filled for today and often that is all it takes to last me a week!