Where Are We Now

Woah. It's been a while! How's everyone doing? Still holding up out there? Still riding bikes? Still being weird? Cool. Same here.

So, a little over 12 years ago, I started this blog as a platform to document experiences that got me excited - and if nobody read my posts, it really didn't matter. First and foremost, I started documenting for myself. Looking back through old posts was a way to reminisce about times that I did something and had fun, and doing that encouraged me go out and do something fun again. It got to a point in which the need to generate content became motivation enough to get out and do more. Taking photos and writing for the blog was a creative outlet of sorts, and that alone gave me fulfillment. Eventually, people actually started reading, and we were able to connect. Several times, I was told that my posts motivated them to get out and explore their area too. Hearing this gave a whole new meaning to the blog, and I realized that even if one person was moved by my posts, then it was well worth it to continue writing.

Well, it's been nearly 5 and a half years now since I've posted here. So, why did I stop?

I'm not entirely sure why I decided to stop posting, but I can attribute it to a couple factors:

When I moved from my college town of DeKalb, IL to Chicago, I started working a lot, and not within the cycling industry. There was less opportunity for small adventures, and the woods and the trails and the rural country roads that I had once enjoyed were a lot less accessible. In the heyday of this blog, we were venturing out into the countryside every Tuesday night - riding long gravel roads or limestone paths through the forest on the Great Western Trail. On some weekends, we would crank out a century and explore a new portion of the rural midwest. It was fun. I'll always look back fondly on those days with the Slender Fungus Cycling Association. These things just don't happen anymore though, or at least not as often. I eventually felt that there just wasn't much worth writing about anymore, so I didn't.

Social media was another likely culprit. It really started to take off back then (for me at least) and it just seemed easier and quicker to share things on Instagram. I still consider myself to be an avid user of Instagram, but the platform lacks that ability to go in depth with story and content the way a traditional blog was intended to do. I should have known it was inevitable, but I now find myself wanting to read and write again, and the instant gratification received from that social media platform just doesn't feel sufficient anymore.

A lot has changed since I stoped posting, but a lot has stayed the same. I still enjoy doing the things we used to do, and I still have the itch to document in one way or another. I've thought many times about reviving the blog - maybe if I start posting again, I'll rediscover that same motivation to get out there. Will anyone start reading again? Does it still not matter? I don't know, but in this new era of the Coronavirus and social-distancing, there's no better time to try it out again than now. The need to connect has never felt as important as it does now. Suddenly, we're all found with a surplus of free time and we can take this opportunity to slow down a bit. There will be a resurgence in reading and writing. Blogs will come back again. Right?

So, here I am, stuck indoors reminiscing about the days of old. I think I'll start posting about a few recent excursions and hope that the momentum keeps up. Let's see how this goes! If anything, it will give me something to do while self-quarantining!

Thanks for coming back if you did. Stay well and be safe out there.