Do you daydream on your rides? 

Let your mind wander? 

I think you do, whether you want to or not. 

A long, straight road with no cars. 

A back trail through a forest. 

Laps on the track. 

Back and forth on bridges. 

In depth. 

Did I let that person know how grateful I was? 

How will I manage this or that? 

Should I just let it go? 

How should I finance that idea? 

Not in depth. 

Do I have Potato Chips for tonight? 

That YouTube video was funny. 

I should clean my car. 

All the while you are doing this, you are covering distances without being aware. 

But you are aware but aware differently. 

You are aware of your surroundings, but you are somewhere else. 

You do not have a memory of going under the bridge. 

Stopping at that light. 

Making that turn. 

Going up that hill. 

There is one route I enjoy riding. 

Close to the halfway point, there is a trail that takes you behind people’s backyards. 

I am usually quite hot at this point. 

In between the boards of a fence, and a space in the bushes, you make out swimming pool after swimming pool. 

Some pools are empty, some pools have a few people swimming, and some pools have empty lounge chairs floating around on their own. 

I let it begin in my head. 

A dive off the board. 

Hang around the bottom of the pool for a little while. 

Swim back to the top. 

Hop out, climb the ladder, and go down the slide. 

Swim to the shallow end and hop on the floating lounge chair. 

I push off the wall with my toes and close my eyes. 

Feeling the sun dry me off as I doze off. 

Then I hit a bump on the trail, and I am riding again. 

But I feel refreshed. 

‘Pool Noodles’ 

Insert lifesaving ring emoji here. 

‘There is another way to ride.’