What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today

Blue Skies Over Bayou St. John

May 12, 2010 1:17 am

I have been riding the Surly almost exclusively lately, but this afternoon I hopped on the road bike I got from S. and headed out to meet D. for lunch. Man, road bikes are entirely different creatures, aren’t they? Seriously speedy, crazy-quick handling–it was fun. But this evening found me riding over to the Jeff Davis overpass for a photo shoot with D. from the New Orleans Bike Book, and I needed to take the Surly for this one. We took some pictures with the New Orleans skyline in the distance, talked about why love riding bikes, and why we love riding them around New Orleans. D. and the photographer asked me as I was leaving where I was headed next. To the Treme, for deep chilling with R. and J.. But I stopped off along Bayou St. John, dropped the bike, and sat on the porch swing someone’s rigged up on that tree and swung back and forth, watching ducks and turtles and feeling the breeze. There were two teenaged ducks, all fuzzy and awkward, eating and drinking with their parents. I loved listening to their tiny slurping sounds. These two white ducks were ambling on the shore and then crossed the street all gaggle-y and such. I took this picture after staring at ducks for almost an hour. That blue sky with those streaky clouds and the telephone poles, one slightly askew, and that dangling branch from the tree holding the swing? Yeah, that’s what I saw, riding my bike around. Lucky, lucky me.