I was just realizing today that this short animated piece from Sesame Street that aired in the early to mid 1970’s likely planted a seed regarding bike touring for me. In it, a boy rides his bike through an increasingly surreal landscape, eventually ending up lost. I know many from my generation found it scary but I just remember wishing that I, too, could go out and experience new and unexpected things. Decades later, I would also explore the world just as this boy does.
Go Outside Today 
What a great video. Of course I didn’t watch Sesame Street but used the time to cook dinner. I love that he was able to find his way back using a useful clue.
Right! I love the attitude of the kid also. Hmmm – I’m lost, I guess I have to figure this out, rather than panic or fear. But I remember watching this and thinking that getting lost looked really awesome! As an adult I can say that that’s definitely true.
That is great that already you thought being lost sounded great. I dreamed of running away myself, though the destination was always rather vague.
I had those dreams also. Margaret Wise Brown had a book called Mister Dog about a dog named Crispin’s Crispian who lived alone in the woods and “belonged to himself”. One day he ran in to a boy and they got to know one another. The boy never owned the dog nor the other way around. They just did their own thing and appreciated each other.
Then there was Tootle the train who decided to leave the tracks and played with the animals in the field. Seemed like a great idea to me though the moral was he needed to stay on the rails (well, it *was* written in 1945.
But the best of them all was Scuffy the Tugboat by Gertrude Crampton about a toy tugboat who got away from his boy and sailed down the river on a great adventure. I *loved* that book up until the end until that stupid meddling boy captured him again and brought him back to the bathtub. What the heck kind of moral was that?!?! Well, *that* one was from 1946 so I guess there’s a bit of a zeitgeist happening there, isn’t there?
My books all involved groups of four or more children doing just fine without any adults!
Oh definitely! I also REALLY loved “My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George about a kid who leaves the city to live on his own in the woods. Lovely!
You were an only kid right? Since I was one of four I must have felt the need to take them with me when I left in my imagination.
Kind of – my brother was born just after I turned eight so for roughly half my childhood I was alone.
I had two siblings before the one born when I was eight. That is a big difference in ages for you.
Yes – we are now really different. It’s like we had two different sets of parents in many ways.
I believe it listening to the ways the later kids were parented.
Now we know the secret 🙂
Take care Todd.
That is really an interesting video. I consider it a life lesson. When you are not sure what to do, start over!
Exactly. Don’t hold on too much to the mistakes. Just start fresh!