Category Archives: Biking

Weekend warrior

Friday: 10-mile round trip (RT) to the doctor, followed by 9-mile RT for a lunch date.  I underestimated that second trip — I estimated it at 6-7 miles until I mapped it to write this post.

Saturday: 4-mile RT to the last of the “winter” indoor farmers’ markets.  I bought some gorgeous early spring greens: spinach, arugula, red-leaf lettuce, plus green onions.  A flat tire stopped Matthew short of the market.  He replaced the tube and pumped it up, only to find that the tire itself was shot.

Fortunately, he was only two blocks from our local bike shop.  I caught up to him locking his bike up there on my way back.  We hung out in the park for fifteen minutes, waiting for the shop to open.  While I’m glad to have a bike shop within a mile or so of our apartment, I’ve often found the owner a bit gruff, which he proved again on Saturday (given my hubby’s tale of the encounter).  Compared to our experience later the same day with another bike shop, “Neighborhood Bike Shop,” as I’ll call it, has a thing or two to learn about customer service.

Anyway, new tire in place and ready to roll, we headed set out on our 22-mile RT ride to our commuter garden.  I rode the garden-to-home half of this trip back in August, when we sold my car, but this was the first time we rode it full circle.  We enjoyed a lovely lunch and a bit of (thankfully) light gardening in the middle.  We made it back home to rest up for Sunday . . . .

Sunday: 3 miles to church, 6.5 miles to brunch, 5.5 miles home, and done.  Moratorium on biking for the weekend!

Surprisingly, my legs feel pretty good for cramming 60 miles into the weekend.  Our car enjoyed it’s weekend rest period, sitting parked on the street from Thursday night until Monday morning 🙂

Weekend edition

Despite the wicked wind of the south, I biked my way through the weekend. Friday presented an exhausting combination of biking and gardening, followed by more biking and more gardening. I planted beets, carrots, and sugar snap peas. I used our new soil miller for the first time — this garden tool rocks! You buy a handle, and whatever interchangeable tool heads you want. If you’re in St. Louis, head over to Home Eco to check out their selection of these great tools. I added a plastic crate to my biking ensemble so I could easily haul the garden tools.

On Sunday, we fit in a little bit of very early season morel hunting — an Easter mushroom hunt, in place of the traditional Easter egg hunt. Sadly, although not all that surprisingly, we found zero morels. However, we did find this guy. Yep, we’re pretty sure that Matthew almost stepped on a copperhead. Fortunately, he saw it when he was about three or four feet away, but he’d been headed right in its direction, focused on scanning for mushrooms, not snakes. We kept our distance, and the copper slept right through the near miss. No doubt I will be slightly on edge during upcoming ‘shroom forays.

Green goings-on

Despite having a crazy busy couple of days ahead, we attended Green Drinks trivia night last night — and reaped the benefits.  The weather rewarded our commitment to biking by staying warm, dry, and not too windy.  Three lovely, intelligent people joined our table to form the five-member “Compost Crusaders” team.  We enjoyed getting to know our teammates while kicking some green trivia butt!

Yes, for the first time in my limited trivia-going experience, I was on the winning team!  We scored goodies from Kakao (blog here), Local Harvest, and Black Bear Bakery.

And a t-shirt!

One question had to do with Sheryl Crow — apparently she thinks limiting toilet paper use is a good idea too!  She takes the two square idea one step further.

The green event train continues tonight, with the Fresh Fest.  We’re looking forward to watching the food documentary Fresh, and enjoying some local fare (hoping for a decent selection of veg offerings).

Uplifting and depressing

Yes, it is possible to be both of those things at the same time.  Last week, I attended the League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Summit.  I sat in on some great breakout sessions.  With over 700 attendees, all bicycling enthusiasts, from across the country, the summit filled the air in D.C. with energy and passion for all things bicycle.  On Thursday, we stormed Capitol Hill to get our representatives and senators on board with bills that support bicycling (and active transportation, livable communities, and all things beautiful and good).  And who wouldn’t want to cosponsor something named the ACT Act (H.R. 4722)?

The down side?  The constant reminder that I am not currently a bike commuter. At the moment, I’m a former bike commuter, a wannabe bike commuter.  As we look toward spring and really ideal bike commuting weather, this gets harder and harder to take.  I struggle more and more with the question of whether or not it was worth the trade-off — my beautiful bike commute for a job that better fit my interests.

Some kind of platitude seems appropriate here: “Live and learn,” or “This, too, shall pass.”  Or something . . . .

To end on a better note, People for Bikes makes my heart happy.  Go to the site, watch the video, and sign the pledge.

People for Bikes

I heard about People for Bikes when it was launched last week during the National Bike Summit.  I’m not gonna lie, this “Why I Ride” video gives me chills and brings tears to my eyes.  True sign of a bike nerd, I guess.  Or possibly a sign of sleep deprivation.

People for Bikes wants at least 1 million people to sign this pledge:

“I am for bikes. I’m for long rides and short rides. I’m for commuting to work, weekend rides, racing, riding to school, or just a quick spin around the block. I believe that no matter how I ride, biking makes me happy and is great for my health, my community and the environment we all share. That is why I am pledging my name in support of a better future for bicycling—one that is safe and fun for everyone. By uniting my voice with a million others, I believe that we can make our world a better place to ride.”

So however you ride, where ever you ride, click on over and sign up.  Don’t be invisible!