Happy Birthday, America!

I’m sitting in front of my computer on this Independence Day, feeling blessed by the steady drought-breaking rainfall and the reality of living in the most free and powerful country in the world, and I hope you’re enjoying the day as well.

[I do hurt for those for whom the rain is not a blessing, for whom too much of a good thing is occurring right now. The boom-and-bust phenomena that defines much of life in Texas often applies to weather, and some of the Hill Country is experiencing that. The same rainfall that renews the beauty of God’s creation can also destroy it.]

Rain like this always makes me feel a bit lazy — makes for good napping weather, right? — so I’m going to recycle some old content. I hope you’ll excuse the rerun.

Ten years ago, Debbie and I were still living in Midland but we had a small townhouse in Horseshoe Bay that we used as a trial run to see if we might want to retire there someday. (Spoiler: We did and we are.) One of the things that attracted us was the smooth, relatively vacant, and beautifully landscaped city streets that seemed specially made for bicycling. (Never mind the fact that flat roads were as scarce as…as…well, as things that are really scarce. Told you I’m feeling lazy.)

So, on July 4th, 2015, I mounted a GoPro camera on our recumbent tandem, set it to take a few photos every minute, and rolled out on an eleven mile ride through the western half of Horseshoe Bay. I then compiled those photos into the following timelapse video.

For those living in or familiar with Horseshoe Bay, the ride begins and ends near the intersection of Highway 2147 and Bay West Boulevard, and the route then meanders through various parts of Horseshoe Bay West. (Don’t bother trying to hear any audio; I stripped it out and deleted it because three minutes of tire drone and a mysterious clicking from the front wheel will never make anyone’s Best Of playlist. Also, full screen video might help you identify some of the locations.)

What strikes me the most when I watch this is how significantly the surroundings have changed in a decade. So much of the wide open space is now developed, and the empty-ish streets are an order of magnitude busier. Both of those things were inevitable, if lamentable by people like me, given the desirability of life in this area. But if I zoom out to a more macro view, the blessings of living here are momentous, as are those that accrue to all of us who are fortunate enough to live in the good old US of A.

So, again, happy birthday, America…may God continue to bless you and we who are you!