Roads: Two Kinds

Rough, (foreground), or smooth, (back ground), I like these sorts of roads best.

In the world of "road cycling" there is a perception that there is only one kind of "road". That would be a paved, smooth, hard surface. Unforgiving, home to copious amounts of automobile and truck traffic, and in many cases, unfit for cycling. Sure, there are quiet nooks and corners in the paved world, but for the most part, you are encroaching upon the playground of heavy, high velocity chunks of rubber, plastic, and steel piloted by distracted drivers and many who deem those on two wheels as some sort of insect to be crushed. Many think this is the only kind of road cycling there is.

They couldn't be more wrong.

There are other roads. Roads that are not paved smooth, but have crushed rock, or even dirt as their passageway. These roads are shunned by automobiles, and are solely the province of the rural resident, who typically sees a two wheeled, pedaling humanoid as someone to wave at and give a wide berth to. These roads are not only the realm of the courteous, but take you back, closer to nature. There is the cleansing of the mind and renewing of the soul. This is where one can disconnect from the connected and get some much needed re-connection with nature.

These are my kind of roads.