Why Bike?

---

First, biking is faster than walking, and definitely easier on the knees! So, we can actually get "somewhere" in the course of the day. We would not be having the experience looking down from an airplane or out a train window.

We are certainly more aware of our surroundings. First, we must be vigilant about the path ahead, to avoid potholes (not any so far on the biking path) and people along the way. We hear more sounds: the church bells, the birds, the crunch of our tires, the gaggle of geese hissing at us as we passed by their water hole, the brown lumps of clay that turned out to be resting ducks! We have seen the lonely chicken, clearly lost from its flock.

Often I have to stop to take photographs...the crops vary: vineyards, apples ready to pick, tobacco drying, pears, large kiwi plants, sorghum, corn (lots of corn, no doubt for high fructose corn syrup), grain elevators, chateaux, passing boats...

People on the path: very old couples, walking hand in hand and declining to be photographed, young mothers pushing strollers, young FAST cyclists on racing bikes, old folks like us...a couple from Oregon (35-45 in age) who WHIZZED by us so fast, explaining that they are touring Europe, and in a flash, they were gone! Some with panniers, like us, others just out for the day. We definitely are not the slowest!

We pass many campgrounds, in fact, camping is a way of life for many people. Our first host Annie is planning to get a camper and just move around for the next year or so.

Although some bloggers have complained about the condition of the paths, in fact, we have found that the paths are better than the Sullivan County roads on which we trained!

---