I Never Promised You an Organic Garden

With my new bike, I feel more capable of carrying things around town, and I decided to test it out last Thursday.  After work I brought home a box of cereal, Popsicles, a can of crushed tomatoes, and  a bag of frozen french fries, on top of my normal purse and lunch bag.  I don’t yet have panniers, so I had to stuff it all in my backpack.  Despite nearly not being able to zip my backpack closed, I didn’t have any trouble.

I didn’t even notice the added weight. This just would not have been possible with my purple bike. The basket upfront wouldn’t have had room for all those items, and if I had somehow fit it all in the added weight would have made steering difficult.  Just a another reason why, I LOVE MY NEW BIKE!

Now just to get some cute accessories!

I am putting this down as my “Carry a load on your bike — groceries, etc.” for Part II of the LGRAB Summer Games

I am also reading a fabulous book right now as part of “Read a book about cycling” for Part II of the LGRAB Summer Games.  I am reading “Along for the Ride” and I love it.  It is a great combination of a coming of age tale, romance, and bikes.  I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good readfor any reason and double recommend it  for anyone into biking.

Thanks for the recommendation Dottie

Matt and I both are participating in the Let’s Go Ride a Bike Summer Games and today we completed two of the items for the Social Cycling Category.

The options were:
* Go on a group ride
* Leave a nice note on a bike, or say hi to a cyclist at a red light
* Schedule a bike date with a friend or partner — dress up!
* Recruit a non-biking friend for a ride
* Ride with your family
We chose to do a Ride with your family and also ended up doing an impromptu group ride.

For the Ride with your family, Matt (my husband) and I biked to church. It is pretty common for us to do so, but it was the first time I got to bike to church on my new bike. I am still loving not having to try so hard to keep up with Matt.

Here we are in our church clothes after returning home.

Our Group Ride turned out to be impromptu.  We were heading to buy some gas cards for a friend moving out of state after church, and one of our other biking friends biked with his.  We were quite a bunch. I rode my recumbent, my husband rode his converted mountain bike/commuter bike, and our friend, Kurt, rode a home-built long-tail cargo bike.  It was a lot of fun and made biking up the hills seem less difficult.

Matt took pictures and video while biking behind us.

I am really enjoying participating and can’t wait to take on some of the items in the next category.

Along with my new bike, I have also found a new biking blog to read: Let’s Go Ride a Bike.  It is written by two women, Trish and Dottie, who bike commute in their respective cities, Nashville and Chicago.  It is quite interesting, and I find it very inspiring.  Both women bike commute in stylish, non-spandex clothing and have cute bike accessories and bags, which is the type of bike commuting I am interested in. (more…)