Last summer I rekindled my interest in bicycle touring. In the Fall of 1982 I spent 5 weeks touring northern France and France's Loire Valley. We spent our time visiting areas which had been ravaged by World War I and walking along the beaches of Normandy, where the Allies launched their invasion of the mainland in 1944. On our tour through the Loire Valley we visited picturesque castles and palaces, and wound up our tour with romanesque churches with their impressive stone carvings.
On this tour through northern France I began to value the experience of riding through the country at the slow pace of a bicycle. I really got to be a part of the landscape and to enjoy my surroundings in a way that I had never experienced while speeding along in a car.
After two years in Connecticut frightened of the traffic, I broke out my bicycle last summer and began to enjoy riding through Connecticut’s rolling countryside. Last summer at the end of August I travelled from Bar Harbor, Maine back to Windsor, Connecticut. I followed a path laid out by the folks at Adventure Cycling in Missoula, Montana. Give their website a look if you are interested in finding out more about cross country touring.
This year I saved my pennies and indulged in a new touring bicycle from Bruce Gordon. You can check out his bikes at this site. This summer I intend to bicyle tour around Lake Champlain in Vermont, Quebec and New York. If you see me on a bike, loaded down with gear, give a wave.
I still like to run when I get the time. In 2000 Carol and I trained for and ran the Hartford Marathon in Hartford, CT. We spent what seemed to be our entire free time that summer training, either mapping ever lengthier routes or actually traversing these routes by jogging. While we both finished the run, the event did take its toll on us. It took about 4 months before either of us ventured out in our running gear again.
I like to read as well. For a time,
it was one computer-related volume after another. But in the past year I have
returned to novels. I also like to combine my enjoyment of reading with my enjoyment
of physical activity, so I check out books on cassettes from the local libraries
here in Connecticut and listen to them while I run. I am currently listening
to the second volume of the Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Two Towers. It was
particularly interesting to listen to the first two Dune books during the summer
I put in the long distance miles of the Marathon training
home | academic | professional | personal | hobbies
©2002 Dan Soneson