When I talkied about my laptop computers not lasting much longer than five years, Martha Kennedy commented “Same here. All one (of mine) does is play YouTube I project on my TV monitor for riding the Bike to Nowhere.” When I commented that I’d like to steal, with attribution, that phrase “Bike to Nowhere” and write a poem about it, she generously agreed, so here it is:
Spinning Tales
As I go spinning on the bike to nowhere,
imagination knows no bounds.
Earlier adventures catch up to me,
jump on the handlebars and hitch a ride.
Riding the highway shoulders
north and south and east—
gravel corridors with their destinations
too far away to ever be reached.
Lunch in a brown paper bag,
top twisted in the bike’s basket.
My tan Hiawatha,
my best friend’s blue Schwinn.
Passed up by boys
with fishing rods
fastened to rear fenders,
somewhere to go revealed
by their hurry to get there.
Our kick stands
useless in the soft dirt,
our bikes lie toppled over
beside us.
As we lie flat-backed in the grass
beside the North Dam,
we hear them cast their lines, again and again,
into the fruitless water.
My ham salad, her peanut butter,
potato chips in a twist-tie baggie—
all I remember of earlier rides
almost lost to memory.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Good use of the phrase to recall memories
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Thanks, Sadje. Took me as long to find the photo of the Hiawatha bike as it did to write the poem… ha
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You’re welcome 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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Well stirred and described memories
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I know of the Train to Nowhere
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Wonderful
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I had a Hiawatha. It was a great bike. The Bike to Nowhere is a Schwinn. Here’s a post with a photo of the Sainted Bike to Nowhere. I wrote the post not long after my hip surgery in 2018. You’ll note the racing stripes on the bike. It’s from the 70s. It now has a No Fear sticker like those we all had on our bikes (me and the BMX boys) back in the 90s. I want to get it a bell and a compass. 🤣
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Delightful poem.
P.S. I am told that computers are not supposed to last five years, but two at the most.
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Really? That’s scary.
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Yes, really, if it is used seriously for work.
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