DECISIONS

Cycling, like life, is full of choices.  Thanksgiving morning I went for a 24 mile bicycle ride to house of my niece and nephew.  About a mile and a half from my house I had a decision to make, which road to take.  It boiled down to playing it safe or going for a little adventure, stay with the known or proceed into the unknown.

I could stay on the road I was on and in a couple of miles it would feed into a mostly straight highway with wide shoulders.   This route, the safe one, would leave me well clear of traffic for half of my ride.  The other choice was to take roads I had never travelled before.  These were narrow rural roads and I knew they would have no shoulders, being barely wide for two cars to pass if their outside tires were in the grass.  The condition of the surface would be very questionable.


I took the one less traveled by




The Road Not Taken


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost



As it turns out, the narrow roads were in pretty good condition and very scenic. An added bonus were the wonderful smells created by the cooks in all of the houses close to the road.  Next time I can add a little speed by not slowing on the downhill corners that are not at intersections.

Don't be fettered by unfounded fears.