Riding

By Katie

I've realized while riding around the island just how much you miss about your surroundings when you only experience it in a car.

Riding in a steel cage propelled by an engine with the music blaring and the air conditioning on, you miss so much about the island. You miss feeling the slight rises and falls in the land. You miss feeling the changes in temperature as you get closer to the water and the cool sea breeze starts to overwhelm the heat radiating from the road. You miss hearing the scurrying of animals in the bushes along the road as they panic when you get to close to them. You miss hearing the calls of birds and the fluttering of wings as a Cayman parrot flies higher into a tree. You miss seeing the detail of the flowers on the trees. The bright variations of green, blue, orange, red, and yellow in the trees, flowers, and water escape your observation. You miss even realizing that there is fruit in the many trees that line the roads. You miss hearing the waves as they crash, either on a distant reef or on the beach just a few feet to your side. You miss a physical understanding of the distance you have traveled. You miss the personal satisfaction of knowing that the distance you have traveled, you had to work for!