kindred spirits

I rode Silver to Superstore today to buy a baguette, milk, some fruit -- peaches, strawberries and raspberries -- and some meat for tonight's barbeque. When I arrived at the bike rack, there were already 4 bikes locked up, one with super-sized panniers. I've seen this bike before. Judging from the seat height and frame size, it belongs to a tall guy, but I've never figured out who he is.

I squeezed my bike in, carefully locked it up, and did my shopping. When I came out, Supersize Panniers was gone, but there were two additional bikes. I was about to snap a photo when a young blonde pigtailed girl, maybe 10 years old, came over and began to unlock her bike. I gave her a friendly smile, which was apparently a signal to her to start talking. 

"Isn't it a nice day for a bike ride?" she asked. I agreed. "I just love riding my bike." Another sentiment with which I could give hearty agreement. "It's much better than driving." Agreed yet again. We chatted a bit more about the Joy of Cycling as I loaded my panniers and she donned her helmet. Then, after wishing me a good day, she took off -- all alone -- across the parking lot towards 16A. I lost sight of her, so I didn't see whether she met up with someone or continued riding on her own, but I was totally impressed with her confidence and of course with her love of bikes. There may be about 40 years separating us in one sense, but in another, more important, sense we are clearly two of a kind.

It took me a while to get ready to ride: stuffing everything in my panniers and unlocking my two locks. As I was doing this, I had another encounter with an older man, maybe 15-20 years my senior. After exchanging remarks about the beautiful end-of-summer weather, he told me he'd been out riding on the trails and that they were already busy with other cyclists. Then he looked more closely at my bike. "Nice bike," he commented. "Is it brand new?" I said that it was fairly new and added that its predecessor had been stolen. "I always lock my bike," he told me. I told him that I normally do, but the bike had been stolen from my yard, where I had deemed locking it up unnecessary. "You shouldn't have to lock it in your yard,." he echoed, then segued to another aspect of cycling: "It's the skinny people like you and me that ride our bikes a lot. You can tell." I laughed and said that it's especially noticeable in the grocery store. (I had been struck by this fact as I did my shopping; I am almost always the skinniest person around.) "Yeah, and you just have to look at what they're buying," he added. I concurred. After agreeing that we have to ride all we can while the weather is still nice (I didn't tell him that I ride in winter, too) he took off.

I was pretty tickled that a simple trip to the grocery store gave me a chance to meet not one but two Kindred Spirits.