Riding with mom and dad

 What better way is there to spend a long summer evening in Kansas than with my parents biking around town?  My mom and I had done this the previous week and found it to be such a relaxing way to end a long day of dry Kansas heat.  I find it amazing how hospitable the open fields can be when the sun is just about to go down compared to just two hours earlier when the heat of the day is unbearable.  With dad joining us we had a the makings of a small crew biking towards downtown Newton.

The picture to the right is particularly fun because I was taking it while riding and pointing the camera backwards.  I didn't have a good idea of what angle to point the camera but luckily I had a good shot the first time.  These type of self-taken shots have a sense of immediacy about them because one just decides to take a shot.  I am not planning to take a shot beforehand but rather am hoping to catch a moment in time.  The act of me looking at the camera also conveys a sense of trial and error in which I don't know whether this shot will come out and if it does, it will be of this moment and nothing else.  In any case, this shot brings back good memories of biking with my parents during the last week before I left for my MCC assignment in Colombia.