It is a Saturday around 7:00 PM.
The ride is over, you have said goodbye, and you are now heading home.
You still have another forty-five minutes to go.
You are hot, a little tired, and hungry.
Part of your route takes you through a park.
It is here that it happens.
There is family after family, celebration after celebration, and they are all BARBEQUING.
Smoke wafts across the path, scented with beef, chicken, fish, corn, hotdogs.
You look over and you see someone at a barbeque turning a Shish Kabob.
Smoking barbeque after smoking barbeque, picnic table after picnic table.
Mounds of tin foil placed in the middle, with steam coming out.
Family-Size bags of Lay’s Potato Chips are being held like minis.
Coolers are open, and someone is hunting for the right drink.
You hear the clanging of bottles and the sound of the ice.
You keep riding and pray someone knows you.
‘TJ! Come join us.’
‘Oh no, I couldn’t.’
Insert winking emoji here.
‘There is another way to ride.’