Day Off

This Thursday was Veterans' Day, and everyone in my house (me, my sister Joni, my sister's fiance Brian) had the day off. Brian had some videos to return to Northampton, so we decided to all take a ride up there since the weather was beautiful.

Joni's bike in the garage.

Setting out!

We took Route 5 and even though it's a busy road (it IS a state highway, after all), I feel completely safe riding on it 95% of the time. There's one spot where the road narrows significantly, but most of the time it looks like this:

Just look at how wide that shoulder is! You could bike four across in that shoulder.

We locked up in some bike racks when we got to Noho. I hate this kind of rack since you either have to lift the wheel up over the top or do some tricky lock work to get more than just your front wheel secured. Joni chose both over-the-top AND fancy lock work.

Lock up that bike!

By the time we got to Northampton we were starving so we made a quick stop at Bueno. For anyone who ever went to school at UMass Amherst, Bueno is a must. I always feel a little like a cheater when I go to the Northampton location because Amherst feels like the true Bueno y Sano to me. And just before heading back home we decided we needed a little warm up. Hot cocoas at La Fiorentina solved that problem.

On our way home we decided to bike around Whiting Reservoir. It's a great place to walk or run or ride a bike. Joni and I often do "bike-runs" up there (as in, I bike and she runs).

Whiting Reservoir

Sometimes when I'm reading fellow bike bloggers' posts it seems as if every trip they make by bike is to get from point A to point B. And while I commend that they're trying to show how biking can really be a viable mode of transportation for most trips, isn't it just nice to ride your bike for fun sometimes? I hope even bike commuters still go for bike rides. I had read something from Mikael over at Copenhagen Cycle Chic that when he visited San Francisco he went for a bike ride with the women of Change Your Life Ride a Bike, and he said something along the lines of "bike rides are what people do in countries that don't have a strong bicycle culture." Does that mean people in Denmark don't ever just ride their bikes for the sake of riding? Yet here in the US it's not unusual to simply "go for a drive," so I don't see why it's such a novel idea to go for a ride. All you bikers out there don't forget that you don't have to know where you're going to ride your bike! Riding a bike is FUN!

I loved the way I could see the trees outside my window in the reflection of my tea. The color is long past now - I spent today trekking around a Disc Golf course covered in wet brown leaves for a tournament, and then we raked all the brown leaves off our lawn so that we can mow the lawn tomorrow. (FYI I am terrible at disc golf - my sister and I came in first in our division because we were the only ones in our division). As it gets colder I've been out on my bike less and less, mostly to my volunteer place and the YMCA.

One of my recent bike rides was to my parents' house for linner (too late to be lunch, too early to be dinner). It's about a 7.5 mile ride. The weather was great - I was actually too hot in the cardigan. Since I run I have a flourescent vest that lights up for night runs, so I packed that and attached it to my basket for the ride home since by that point it was getting dark.

I love my new boots! They are perfect for wearing over jeans or with sweater tights and they were great riding. Plus the chunkier heel makes for very comfortable walking.

The next pictures I post will involve coats, mittens and scarves I'm sure! Working up near the UMass campus I see a lot of college students biking and with the chill in the air there are a lot of kids biking around with their hoods up underneath their helmets. They look ridiculous but I bet they're warm!