Bicycle oh bicycle!

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike, I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I liiiiiike. Thanks to Queen for a perfect prelude to today's post. I would like to take a second to thank the inventor of the bicycle [which is actually a difficult subject, many theories/individuals] for creating a pretty perfect form of transportation. Growing up, I looked at bicycles as a method of exercise, probably because my dad has always been a huge cyclist. He does 100 mile rides on a regular basis, pretty incredible. Biking was never my thing as a kid, I didn't have the patience to be on the saddle for hours at a time. Running exhausted you much more quickly and I liked being on my own two feet.

As I've gotten older, I have learned to appreciate the bicycle as a great form of transportation. Through college, a ton of my friends got around campus on old beater bikes. Most of the time I just made fun of the whole bicycle culture, since our campus was at MOST 2 miles from end to end. But there were other times that I was jealous that they got to their destination like 4 times faster than my legs would take me. Recently, the hour walk to and from work is amazing, but I am also very tempted to do the 15 minute bike ride instead. On my to-do list when I start my new job! Just need to figure out the whole showering situation.

I was fortunate enough to go on two European bike tours with my family in 2004 and 2008. The first go around, we toured back country France and Switzerland at the same time the Tour de France was happening, it was really cool. The second trip, we landed in Frankfurt and biked through Germany, Austria and northern Italy. It is amazing to explore countries on bike, it gives you the opportunity to really experience the culture and environment, and it is active and fun. If you ever have the opportunity to tour globally on bicycle, I highly recommend it. Kudos to my father for amazing trip planning.

Enter: my week off. I have been thoroughly enjoying being able to bike everywhere I want to go. The limiting factor to doing this all the time is a little something called perspiration. When I have nowhere important to go and I'm in sports clothes, sweating all day is just great. Being able to get from point A to point B using my own two legs [and the help of two wheels...] is something I really appreciate. I look forward to riding my hot little purple Trek mountain bicycle everywhere I possibly can during the summer months!

Hop on and ride that bike!