Wednesday nite ride
Back from my business trip which included locking my keys in my rental - something I have never done even in my own car. $75.00 later and thinking about all those folks who commute to work by bike, I was back in the car. Got to the hotel and to my surprise I was the guest of the day. My gift package included a free dinner at a local restaurant(which I walked to-no bike available) and a bag full of treats for the evening in the hotel. Not so bad!
My husband and I needed to go grocery shopping for a few things and spent some time thinking about how we could achieve this on the bikes. The store we were going to is off the trail but easily accessible thru parking lots and one main street crossover. We didn't need much but had to really figure out ways to get the groceries home( we still don't have racks for the back of the bikes or the bags needed. We each got backpacks and I had a small bag that I thought we could rig off the handle bars of his bike. Off we went!
The weather was great for an early evening ride. As we were approaching the front of the store we met up with some friends. Of course many questions were asked about what we were doing on our bikes, what route we took, WHY we did this etc.... I explained about the contest and showed off my jersey. Told them about the website where they could see that indeed this was true. They also live off the trail in another subdivision in the same city. I gave them a short run down of all the places they would be able to get to if they road their bikes. Their response was that they had never given any thought to riding to any of these places. We made plans to ride to favorite frozen custard spot this weekend. We will see if they follow thru!
As we went into the grocery store with our bags. It came to mind that we will not need to get the "plastic or paper" bags because we had brought our own. We would need to do a little arranging to get everything in but we decided this to would become easier with time. We made our purchases, packed our bags and headed back home. It was a little difficult for me to ride with the backpack but I managed. We will definitely be getting more equipment for the bikes.
This checks another thing off the list we made of places that we could ride our bikes to. Next time going to the grocery store for a few items won't take so much thought and time.
FRIDAY NITE RIDE
After of a busy week of work, travel and still unpacking the house we decided to head to Taco Bell for a quick dinner. The weather was great again. I still have trouble dressing appropriately. If it seems cool at home once you get out on the bike and start pedaling you warm up quickly. we locked up the bikes and went inside. Some friends of one of our children were in the restaurant. First they just said hello and made small talk but then they asked if we had ridden our bikes from home. They didn't know we had moved already and thought we rode from our old home. This would not have been an easy "Trek" for us. Lots of 2 lane highways that neither of us are ready for yet! I told them about the contest I had won and explained what we were doing and why. One of them is a bike enthusiast and thought what we were doing was pretty cool. He asked where else we had gone on the bikes. He gave us some routes we hadn't thought of to get safely to some other spots.
My winning this contest has spurred much conversation amongst our friends. Many of them do ride bikes and had never given much thought to riding to the store, library, restaurants or church. At least I have made them think about it - now they just need to follow thru. Even if just one of them rides their bike (or walks) instead of jumping in the car that will make a difference.
The weather this weekend doesn't look to promising for riding but we hope to get a ride in sometime.
Question: Do I send my posts in until the end of May? Any other commitment for the contest? I was really hoping to get to the dinner in KC on Wed evening-my daughter lives just down the road from Shawnee in Olathe- work got in the way again!
Thanks again. I know I have said this before but it has really made us think about how much we waste in our everyday lives.
