Tuesday

Riding the Freedom Trail in Maryland

I hate my car.  Two catalytic converters just blew.  Cost to replace: $1700.00

The only thing that I like about my car is the radio.  As a transportation vehicle it stinks.  When I was a kid, I loved the power, the ability to ride 200 miles in a day without blinking, or sleeping in the back seat when I couldn't afford a motel.

Those days are gone.  My car is a ball and chain sitting in traffic on the inner loop of 695 at 3:00 pm in the afternoon sun.  My first used car cost me $800.  Today I can't buy one for less than $5000.  If my income had gone up by the same amount, I won't be so depressed.  I'd be rich.  Not a slave to mosuburbia.

Things are not getting better.  My disenchantment with the car is a nationwide plague and drivers are taking it out on bicycle drivers.  Patriotic cowboys of the road.  American's last symbol of independence and freedom.  You can still buy a nice used bike for $75 and my Schwinn is still going after 25 years.

Many people consider buffalo and wolves a thing of the past.  Who cares if they disappear off the face of earth?  Fortunately, bikers are a tougher and more adaptive species, they will live on, and long after my rotten car is sitting in a heap of another overflowing junk pile on Rt. 40, two wheelers will be riding the freedom road to paradise.

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