The long way home


 Tonight I took the long way home (#ttlwh). The Mud Creek Road and the segment on Tallahassee Road have the highest elevation gain of all of the bike commute routes in my arsenal thus far.  Compared to Portland or even Austin it is still basically flat, but I love finding any bump in the road that goes up for more than a few hundred feet.
 
This evening it was really windy with strong gusts in all directions. There were big steady winds from the west and I rode for a good while directly into the wind. I did not care about it as I was just happy to be out in the sun relaxing on my bike as I rode home with no worries. 

It is hard to capture the beauty that I see during the photographer's period of golden light. I took this video and you can not see the vivid green grass and ground cover that was so bright against the barren trees.  I may start hauling my big Canon 10D to chronicle the changing seasons as I ride through pecan groves and cotton fields.  I do decide to stop on my rides and yank out my phone to take snapshots so I can remember the moment.  If you do not stop and smell the chicken coops or watch the black Angus cattle butting heads in the pasture then you miss the whole point of a bike commute.  For me it is all about the ride, not about how fast you get there.  I always get to where I am going, but I always want my goal to be to get there with a story to tell or a memory about how I got to my destination.

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