Tag: well-being

Today I woke up early and went for a 7:30 a.m. bicycle ride to check out the Sculpture Garden at the Cedar Park Recreation Center. They say it’s not about the destination, but the journey… but sometimes it’s really both! The sculptures on display at this time are really cool, and I especially liked the piece in the photo above entitled “Gotcha Bird with Fish” by Siri Dehipitiya. Isn’t it awesome?!

Speaking of birds, the “journey” over to the sculpture garden took me past the small ponds adjacent to the park, and I spotted a beautiful Great Egret just chilin’ in the morning sun. Super cool.

Although it was only about 41°F / 5°C, the ride was super fun and relaxing because of the light traffic (being an early Sunday morning). I don’t usually ride this early but I think I should make it a habit. It’s a special way to start the weekend day.

Please take a look at this morning’s ride if you have some free time:

Bicycles are kind of magical. They can be fun, push you to your limits, scary, and relaxing. People use them to commute, for exercise, to travel, for competition, and to simply go for joyrides. Sounds like a dream, right? I wish we lived in a world without cars… just bicycles, trains, and ships. And motorbikes. 😄

Anyways, here’s a video of a ride I took after work. A nice way to unwind and get some fresh air:

This afternoon I took advantage of the warm weather to go for a long bicycle ride along Brushy Creek Regional Trail. When I ride on this busy path, I wear my mask 95% of the time. Of course I want to be safe during this COVID-19 pandemic, but also, it helps with allergies (as my brother reminded me). Besides wearing my mask, I also held my breath most of the times I passed by people. By riding on the relatively busy trail, I’m taking a risk, but I think wearing a mask, wearing glasses (yes, there’s a study that says this helps with safety), keeping socially distant when possible, and also holding my breath when passing people, I think the chance of catching COVID-19 is very small.

That being said, it was nice to see a lot of bicycles on the trail, from little kids to older folks. I even saw some teens cosplaying and wearing elf ears! The weather was very nice: low 70s, cloudy, with a gentle breeze. It was really cool to see kites flying above the park! By the way, it wasn’t as ominous as the photo above looks – but it’s just too fun to play with the post-processing in Adobe Lightroom. 😄

I’m happy that I live close enough to this trail that I can bicycle from my house and be there in 10 minutes or so. But even if I didn’t live close, it’s easy to access the trail by car at many points along the route.

At the eastern terminus of the trail I took a photo with my bike. Several years ago, I took a photo at the same place, so I thought it might be nice to do so again.

I recorded this ride on my GoPro, so please join me (virtually) on the trail if you have time:

I hope you had a great day!