Along the Trail

Yesterday on my bike ride along the Western Trail here where I live I was impressed with the scenery but especially places where people live along the trail. The trail was constructed by taking away rails from an old railroad line that used to bring logs from the forests in the Centralia Washington area to Olympia ports to be shipped all over the world. Logs are no longer transported that way so the old train lines became obsolete.  

Not a trailer but typical shack

There is a lot of beautiful things to look at along the way, but some things really impressed me. As I started my ride off of 14th street I noticed that there were many really really poor looking single wide trailers. Not only were they old and run down, they reminded me of some of the areas I have seen in  photos of slums in other parts of the world. There was junk and trash all over the place. I realize many folks do not have a lot of money and can not afford a better place to live, but they do not have to be so messy and put trash all over the place. Maybe they are sick and can not do anything, but I bet many of them just don’t care.  

Up the trail there were typical newer neighborhoods with nice homes and open nature areas with fields of wild flowers and wet lands for other creatures. It was real pleasant to see the sights and smell the fresh air. There were a lot of folks walking or running and just taking their dogs for a nice walk along the trail. There were other bikers of course, most were a lot better at it than I am, and some went zooming past me like I was standing still.  

At the end of my ride I came to an area along the trail that was a very big contrast to what the beginning of the ride was like. The homes in this area where all in a gated community. It was on a golf course with pools and homes that looked like castles. Some even had their own waterfall in their landscaping. I would think many were worth in the millions. There were two areas like this at the end of my ride which was about 6.5 miles from where I started my ride.  How strange it was to see how these people lived in contrast to how the poor people live. I wondered how in this country there could be so much difference between people in less then 10 miles along a trail.  

I do not believe in the redistribution of wealth but I can not help wonder how each of these groups got so far away from each other. Oh well just something to think about along the way to my weight loss exercise. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to have this tool to help me achieve my goals of being in better shape.