biking

The Wheel of Life: Biking with the Ghosts of AIDS

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 6 Comments

To donate to my Hill Country Ride for AIDS effort on April 30th, please email me at <ADudeAbikes AT gmail >

The Wheel of Life

It’s early morning on a cloudy Sunday in the Hill Country town of Dripping Springs, Texas.  Fifty cyclists trickle into the empty school parking lot slowly, as if arriving at a wake.  They spill out of Subarus and Priuses (Prii, my high school Latin teacher’s voice echoes from the past), weird clowns in brightly colored costumes, but tight and made of Spandex, shoes not floppy, clicking on the ground.  Aliens looking down would be perplexed by this bizarre parade.  Their faces still show signs of sleep, coffee tumblers clutched closely in hands that would soon be covered in fingerless gloves.  There was banter and hugging friends, and talk about the chance of rain, while mentally they were each preparing themselves for 22 or 44 miles of relentless pedaling up and down country roads.

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The Hill Country Ride for AIDS “Joy Ride”, they call their training outings.  But underneath the frivolity and anticipation of just another weekend sporting event being replicated around the world, an air of solemnity hung over this group.  Despite my staunch atheism I can’t help but shake an eerie feeling.  It’s as if the ghosts of people lost to that damn fucking virus — so many lives lost, and still without a cure — are also gathered in that parking lot with us.  Brothers, sisters, lovers, husbands, wives, partners, mothers, sons and daughters.  They were there, watching and waiting, their energy drawn to the event, simply by virtue of being remembered.  I imagine a silently cheer emanates from the ghosts of HIV victims past, urging the living riders to go on in their names. Continue reading →

T.I.T.S.! Lots and Lots of T.I.T.S.!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

Time.  In.  The.  Saddle.  What did you think it meant?  A doctor who bikes told me this, so it’s okay.  And he’s right.  Spending alot of time sitting on a bike seat, legs spinning out the miles while time goes by, is what one needs to do to feel comfortable on long bike rides.  A Dude enjoys alot of T.I.T.S, going 10-miles an hour average with stops as he does.

So Tuesday night, feeling tired, not having a riding buddy, but knowing it would rain the next day, and as Monday was mostly a rest day, I suited up and got back in the saddle.  Because that’s what A Dude does, even when he doesn’t particularly feel like it.  Instead of puttin’ on the ritz, he’s puttin’ in the T.I.T.S.  Here’s my 33.5-mile ride results on Strava.

It was a chilly night, but eventually I had to remove my hat with nose and mouth cover, outer gloves, and unzip jacket and jersey.  I had a fun thought and did a fly by of the residences of one riding partner and then the place of another friend.  Strava isn’t 100% accurate, but it shows I was there, for sure.  But I didn’t stop, because that would mean less T.I.T.S.  Still, good times.

Winding my way back north from nearly to the Austin airport, I found myself on my old friend, the Southern Walnut Creek Trail.  Riding it at night is fun, now that I know the way well, plus with my super-bright rechargeable Serfas Thunderbolt lights that I lucked upon at the Bike Farm and a freebie orange and yellow safety vest I got lucky and got for free at the Yellow Bike Project, I feel alot more comfortable.  (How’s that for name-dropping?)  Saw a cottontail rabbit who almost ran in front of me, and then nearly hit a possum.  The three wild boar I saw previously were not there.  Five guys having a party were the only humans I passed.

Time is short and A Dude is tired, so I’ll say that at one point I heard coyotes.  People in cars yielded the right of way.  My knees hurt.  So did other things I won’t go into.  Nothing happened, and yet everything happened:  life, going by quickly.  I had seen my friend’s riding on Strava, so I set out with a goal to bike more than my riding buddy did.  The rain only fell in sprinkles, and I did not fall off the bicycle, get hit by a car, or receive a ticket.  I simply put in the time in the Saddle, and that is it’s own reward.

Of course having the ability to spend hours biking and thinking of something else is a bit of a luxury.  But one with blood, swear and tears, too.  More to come but I welcome your invitation.  Keep on reading, and I’ll keep on writing.

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Thanks! A Dude Abikes

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