Was it…
The spring flowers that lined the trail with different colors in different in sections,
Or the light tinge of green beginning to appear among the branches of the trees;
The big fat bird that I sighted in the distance,
That kept running away from me along the trail as I slowly caught up with it,
That eventually managed to lift its huge and somewhat ungainly body off the ground
and disappear into the woods around a corner;
The small turtle crossing the trail oblivious to the dangers posed by folks like me;
The big turtles perched on the logs in the waters of the canal warming themselves,
Or swimming in the clear waters with their backs sticking out above water level;
The incredibly bright red cardinals zipping across the trail in front of me;
The extremely loud pecking of the woodpecker ringing through the woods;
The fox crossing the trail and the canal as I approached;
The barred owl that rose from a tree just beside the trail as I went by,
Flying off to settle on a tree further away from the trail to stare at me;
The vultures that reluctantly rose from the trail as I approached,
Only to land on the trees above the trail to watch me go by;
The appearance of the two dogs that seemed to have no master,
One approaching me with an awkward and sideways gait,
Seemingly looking at me warily out of the corner of one eye,
And the other running away to the berm side of the canal to stare at me from the distance?
But the overall result was a great time riding my bike even though I did not stop to smell the roses, and even as I covered 20 miles in each direction along the towpath in preparation for the ride from Pittsburgh to the DC area happening later in the year.
Splattered Brains 