Among the lion’s teeth. 30 days of biking, #27

Dear Triumverate (and Zertog and Suzie):

I’m lucky to have landed on a planet dense enough to support a bicycle tire, maybe two. But even here, it’s not always supportive of bicycle life.

That’s why the inhabitants developed boats and bridges, to link bicycle-friendly parts of the planet.

And, to celebrate their accomplishments, beer.

By the way, It’s curious that the boats and bridges were in place millennia before the inhabitants created their version of the bicycle. It’s as though they knew infrastructure was required for something that didn’t yet exist.

The bicycle tire theme recurs in their simple meals: bagels, doughnuts, pizza; so even when they aren’t guiding a bicycle over the surface, they are thinking about it, taking it in, mentally rehearsing the act.

Even the vegetation here seems to mimic the wheel, especially flowers like dens lionis, or lion’s tooth.

This planet’s inhabitants, like we, are fascinated by the leverage a bicycle provides, the deceptively simple technology that allows them to travel so much faster than walking, which is, itself, such a delightful way to get around.

By the way, you should see them walk.

You would think the position of their eyes, so far from their feet, would be an obstacle to accurate locomotion, but most of them do a pretty good job of it.

Especially when there’s no hurry.

April 27. 1 mile.