By Scott Slingerland

As a child in the 1980s, I rode bicycles fervently around my suburban neighborhood in Poughkeepsie, New York. In summers, we’d visit Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and the paved rail trails seemed to go forever, weaving through scrubby pine forests, cranberry bogs and fresh water ponds, ocassionally offering rest stops at candy stores and sandwich shops.

At nearly the age when many youths deem their pedal machines uncool or not worth the effort, I, at 15 years old went to Germany as an exchange student. An eye opening perspective on how cool it can be when 500 of a school’s 1000 students pedal their way to class and park in a bicycle parking garage.

My dad got me into longer rides, spending hours on the floor with local maps, creating training routes for MS 150 rides that would take us off the beaten and congested path.

I never looked back. Bicycling has been my passion for long-distance travel, despite forays into rally car racing and other combustion powered conveyances. For short-distance travel, walking is as much fun in a different way – not confined to the roadway.

I enjoy the spiritual aspect of cycling- to slow down for richness of life, to absorb and interact the culture and nature that my bicycle takes me through – to give my body a workout that leaves it hungry for more, and for healthy calories.

See you on the road, on the trail, or wherever we may roam, unencumbered by steel and glass boxes – to explore and enjoy life.