“The person who lives life fully, glowing with life’s energy, is the person who lives a successful life.” — Daisaku Ikeda

Riding my bike yesterday it occurred to me that this time 50 years ago I was finishing up a more than 500-mile hike, following the Appalachian Trail through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

I was 20 years old, and often point to that experience as formative in terms of falling in love with America. Because – like riding the Greyhound bus from Philadelphia to Bozeman, Montana – walking the length of Virginia gave me such a unique perspective.

Now, exactly 50 years later, bicycling through rural Edgecombe County is in a sense the same experience. I am seeing this part of the country through new eyes and it is a gift.

Apparently, among serious cyclists, “riding your age” is a thing. You know, like taking a 50-mile ride the year you turn 50. For me, that would mean a 70-miler sometime during 2026. I don’t think so!

Then I had this epiphany. What if I leverage my historic credentials as a European and apply the idea to kilometers? One short math equation (Miles × 1.61 = Kilometers) and last Saturday’s 44-mile adventure comes out to 70.8 kilometers!

Done. Check riding my age off the list for 2026.

Sauntering

Yesterday I missed the opportunity to take a long morning ride with a couple of my friends, so I dealt with the afternoon heat by doing the cycling equivalent of sauntering. It felt really good. Minimal effort for an easy and relaxed forty-minute ride, taking in the scenery as I went.

Today, fifty years after I started to realize that America was beginning to grab my heart and work its way into my soul, I am still discovering more to love.

I may have traveled internationally…

• sailed in oceans, fjords, rivers and seas,
• ridden camels around the Great Pyramids,
• been pulled by dog-sleds in Switzerland and water buffalo in Turkey,
• crossed London Bridge in an open-air double-decker bus,
• flown a hot-air balloon through the Red-Rock Canyon,
• zip-lined under the rainforest canopy in Costa Rica,
• hiked nine weeks on the Appalachian Trail,
• zoomed around the island of Rhodes on a motorbike,
• and seen America the Beautiful from sea to shining sea….

… but when I ride my bicycle through Tarboro and on through the farmlands of Edgecombe County I still – if I keep both my heart and my eyes wide open – see wonders as yet unknown. – DEREK

“But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” – Matthew 13:16