Biking 50 Miles a Day | Bernie
East Bay Bike Path
I just biked 25 miles. To Bristol Harbor, it’s about 12 miles. And I biked back. But I’m gonna do it again. I do about 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week. People think I’m crazy, but I love to ride. It’s good to keep healthy. I’m 74. Doesn’t seem like it. I don’t feel 74, and it feels like yesterday I was 19. Now I can’t walk because my knees, I got arthritis in my knees. I can ride okay, but if I walk from here to that stop sign, I’d be in so much pain. I’d have to sit down.
I love the sunshine. Now today, the sun’s fading, but this morning I started about 11, it was nice and sunny. And that makes a big difference. My wife and I had breakfast. And then I head out. I drive here. We live on the East Side, so it’s 10 minutes away. I drive here and I park, this is my favorite spot. It takes me about an hour to get to Bristol Harbor. I sit down if it’s sunny and I put CNN news on, I listen to the news for about 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Sometimes I have a snack. But today I had oatmeal. And then I rode back and I’m finished now. It’s about four past two. And maybe about 2:30, I’ll start, ride back and do the same thing, ride all the way to Bristol. Sit down, maybe have something to drink, have a little snack. And then I’ll come back here. I usually finish up maybe 4:30 to five.
The nice thing now with the days being long, I don’t have to ride in the dark. But I do have a nice light here. The other bikers don’t like it because it’s bright and it shines in their eyes. But I say, “too bad.” Because I want you to see me coming. A few weeks ago, when I would finish 4:30 or 5, it was dark. There are these people out jogging, no light on. Carry a flashlight, anything where I can see you coming.
Now I had an instance a few weeks ago, right this way. Some guy had a real bright light. I put mine on flashing strobe. He had it on steady light. And what happens when it gets dark? When someone is coming at you with a bright light? I can’t see them. In other words, if I shine a light in your eye in the darkness, you wouldn’t see my face. So what happened? I saw him okay, because the light was very obvious. I didn’t realize that just as I came up to him, and I was going to pass to the right—he’s on the left—there was a woman with dark clothes. I almost hit her. But if I hit her, she wouldn’t have got hurt. I would have been the one with broken bones.
So oddly enough, about a week ago, I saw him. I saw him driving down my street. And I flagged him down! I said, “I remember you!” And then I showed him, he was standing about this distance. He had his light on and he shined my face. Right here. I could not see his face. And you got to tell these people, you shine a light, we cannot see you in the dark. If it’s light out, okay, no problem. But in the darkness, I can’t see.
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