mission

an online exhibition to explore civic engagement and the cycling community
here is the place to speak your voice, share that ride you wished never ended, glimpse the trail through another's eyes...stories we all relate to and want to remember...this is the collection.

from across the city to across the world, cyclists all have one thing in common, our love to share today's, yesterdays' and tomorrows' experience with our fellow riders.

find your story among the others...and ride on.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Twine of our lives

Last summer I biked across the country with a non-profit organization called Bike and Build. This organization hosts several cross-country cycling trips to raise money for and awareness of affordable housing efforts in the USA. So anyway, one day we were biking. We were pretty deep into the trip, in Kansas to be exact. Our day's agenda was to start in Beloit, and finish in Phillipsburg. Word on the street had it that we were supposed to pass by the World's Largest Ball of Twine. I was so pumped to hear that. That was like music to my ears to hear that we had an opportunity to see such history. Such americana. I can not imagine biking across this country without seeing the world''s largest something. To my pleasure, this time, our treasure was twine. Sure enough, after 20 miles or so, we roll into a very small town, Cawker City, KS. On the shoulder of the road, there was a painted strand of twine curling and winding all the way to the centermost place in this community. The twine. There it was. A 17,000 Lb ball of Sisal Twine, sheltered in an altar-like gazebo of some sort. 
During the 20 something miles of the morning, pre-twine, was filled with an amazing amount of exuberance just knowing that we were going to lay eyes on something glorious that day. That feeling was so much better than the one we experienced right before we saw the Rockies for the first time! That had a lot to do with the vigorous climbs, extreme heat, viscous wind, constant desert, and overall suckiness of eastern Colorado, however. 
When I saw the twine, I must say I was very close to disappointed. Not let down, but just a little curious why it was that I wanted to see the twine in the first place. Because, I thought it was going to be this great big ball of twine, but when we finally got there, it was just a big ball of twine. You know? But it was extremely awesome nonetheless. 
The rest of the ride was filled with dumb puns regarding twine, songs that had lyrics that either rhymed with Cawker or City or Twine or Big Ball of Twine etc..  followed by the best hamburger joint in the biznass, The Chubby Pickle. Straight boomin'. Good prices, delicious burger. All in all, it was a great day of cycling. It was good enough to remember vividly. It was good enough to write this about it, for me.   

1 comment:

  1. Sweet story. Link to the website for Bike & Build is www.bikeandbuild.org RIDE ON!

    ReplyDelete

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