I ride a mountain bike on paved streets, don’t own a shred of fluorescent clothing, get passed more often than I would like (including one time by a jogger), and have been known to hit living and inanimate objects. Though I’m not an accomplished cyclist, I keep doing it several times a week because I like it (not to mention the cardio benefits). I was inspired by Dave’s (at Thoughts-O-Dave) pictorial bike tour to document my own bike travels (in the order the pics were taken, of course).
This statue is in memory of 25 people who were killed several years ago when a tornado destroyed a mobile home park in the middle of the night. My grandparents, who lived in that mobile home park, lost everything (except 1 file cabinet) in the tornado and were badly injured. (Amazingly, they are all right now!)
I love that my path follows a river. You couldn’t pay me to get in the river, but I could look at it all day long.
I also find being surrounded by cornfields strangely comforting. You would think that a book I read a few years ago, Still Life With Crows, about monster who jumped out of cornfields might change that…but it didn’t.
I always take a long water break at my turnaround point to watch the horses run. I may be deathly afraid of riding them, but that doesn’t stop me from admiring them.
I took a long break here to try to capture some road/cornfield/cool cloud shots. Apparently I was standing on the side of the road for a long time because a man passed me on bike and yelled, “Are you okay?” I sheepishly answered.
The blue dot is the concerned cyclist.
These signs were placed on common bike routes around town in memory of a cyclist who was killed during a popular local bike tour a few years ago. I didn’t know his name before the accident. I knew him as the faithful 5 a.m.-er at my gym who said, “Hang in there, you’re almost done,” when I was feeling like a whale in the pool’s lap lanes just before the imp was born. I don’t understand how the driver of the vehicle couldn’t have noticed hundreds of cyclists.
I ride my bike with the assumption that people don’t stop at stop signs, notice bright clothing, or make smart passing decisions. I also ride with the expectation that a dog could jump out from behind any bush. They do that sometimes. I wish it didn’t have to be that way, and I hope the signs make a difference (to people…not dogs, of course).
23 Comments
June 30, 2008 at 1:58 pm
The shot over the handlebars is my favorite. Looks like a beautiful day.
It was a gorgeous morning…and low humidity too. Couldn’t ask for more in June!
June 30, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Good for you! I just got a trailer to tow kids when riding a bike. Now all I need is the bike. Baby steps, I tell you.
Baby steps in the right direction
June 30, 2008 at 2:40 pm
What a great idea to take photos of the things you see on while biking. I don’t own a bike, but I could do this while out walking.
I also like the shot over the handlebars best – that looks like a day that goes on forever.
A walking picture tour would be fun as well. You would probably catch some of the smaller things of interest that would go unnoticed on bike.
June 30, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Looks like a great day — with benefits far beyond cardio. Thanks for the tour.
You’re welcome
June 30, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Always looking out for some blog photos…at least you didn’t drop the camera.
If you got plastered by a truck out there…who’d find you? I guess there are a lot of cyclists out there.
Leave it to me to find the glass half empty…sorry!
Don’t worry about me. In addition to plenty of other (real) cyclists, I pass houses too along the way. I just didn’t stop to take any pics of the houses, for fear of creeping the owners out.
July 1, 2008 at 6:26 am
What a good idea for a post.
I’m going to have to steal it and document one of my bike rides.
That is some beautiful country.
Oh, please do steal it. I look forward to looking at your pictures.
July 1, 2008 at 8:27 am
Fun! I love these picture blogs and especially the tour around town. I tried to do that on a run the other day but it didn’t turn out too well. I was too busy gasping for air and trying not to heatstroke out.
I’m glad your Grandparents are doing fine. That must have been so tramatic for you.
I’ve been to Atlanta once. I can see why heatstroke would be a concern!
Thanks- it was a crazy time in the town and family. I’m glad they okay now.
July 1, 2008 at 8:41 am
What an awesome idea and thanks for sharing! Looks gorgeous where you live.
Thanks! Sometimes it’s good to hear an outsider say something nice about where you live, so that you don’t take what you have for granted.
July 1, 2008 at 9:05 am
I’m a cyclist.. I frequently bike to work and back and we go away to do mountain biking trails in Scotland amongst other places a couple times a year. It’s a fantastic way to get about – not as closed in and oblivious as a car yet a little faster and cooler than walking and the fitness benefits are great. I’m constantly trying to get people to try it more often but unfortunately they don’t get past the first ’sore arse’ day!
I’m a wimp. I have a gel seat cover
July 1, 2008 at 10:21 am
Nice post. It’s neat to see what’s around other people.
When I lived in Arlington, VA, I used to ride my bike down through the Arlington Cemetary (they let you ride on the main road, but you can’t take your bike on the side streets) and across the Potomac to the trails that run alongside.
To this day, that remains one of my most fondest memories of D.C. Course, you had to be careful that you didn’t get too carefree with the wind at your back, cuz sooner or later you had to turn around and riding against the wind was hell when you were already tired!
I very badly want to see Arlington Cemetary someday. I’ve never been to D.C.
I know EXACTLY what you mean about the wind. I got that everyday when I rode my bike on the beach at Hilton Head. I always started against the wind so that the trip back would be easy.
July 1, 2008 at 10:23 am
What a beautiful place you live in. I’m so jealous. It was nice that the blue dot stopped to ask if you were okay. Here, you could be lying in the ditch and noone would stop. Bastards.
The people here are very nice in general. Yikes to people who would leave you lying in a ditch!!
July 1, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Awesome blog! I Love the pictures!!! I remember riding through cornfields and over rivers when I was a kid…now I spin at the local gym. It’s a lot different…and not as scenic…
I still do the gym a few mornings a week, but it sure it nice to savor the great outdoors when I can. Summer is so much more fun for workouts than winter.
I haven’t done a spinning class in forever. I should re-visit this winter.
July 1, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Wonderful post Allison, thank you! I felt like I was riding along with you. Nice commentary too. Bicycle riders are really nice people (usually). Thanks for attributing and linking your inspiration to my blog.
It was extra interesting to read a post after my own most typical style.
Great photos too. Beautiful countryside too and I would love to ride on that flat landscape!
I got back into cycling as an adult about 10 years ago and started out with mountain bikes. At some point I bought a cheapo road bike and the first ride felt like flying (albeit at a really low altitude). I was hooked. Now I have the fluorescent green shirts, the rear view mirror on the helmet, have met and ridden with lots of fun people etc. It got me into pretty much the best shape I’ve ever been in my half century of living. And it’s fun to blog about.
Thanks for giving me the idea to begin with.
It sure is flat landscape…sometimes I really wish for a hill or two to add some challenge.
I still have the same bike that my dad picked for me from a safety prize catalogue when he worked for a coal mine. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to give it up in favor of a faster road bike for sentimental reasons.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I don’t have mega-muscular calves like real cyclists have.
July 1, 2008 at 9:09 pm
I love the street with the huge trees on it. I bet it is gorgeous in the fall, too.
Very pretty in the fall. I love having a canopy of trees over me when I ride…especially on a scorching summer day!
July 2, 2008 at 9:29 am
And where is this landscape? Those immense trees! And those fields! And that river! I have never seen such a river, nor trees like that. I am in Madrid, Spain (Europe). When I first arrived here, I thought the trees were sick. I felt sorry for their trees, and they were proud of them.
The last photo that you put in (where it says “share the road”), is that a park?
I also read David regularly. Those daily things make great posts. He even did some on the things he has around the house and once he posted the things he has at his office.
And once he had a big picture of his icebox with its door wide open so you could see each bottle and glass! Very funny to see how that worked on his readers’ imagination. I sat spellbound too, even though none of his jars and spices and things meant anything to me.
I live in a fairly small midwestern U.S. town. We have mostly deciduous trees around here, and I miss the leaves terribly during the winter. Spring is spectacular…especially the dogwoods.
Regarding the scenery around the “share the road” sign…the land to the right is 500+ acres of a Native American preservation site.
I need to go back and read some of his older posts. I like the idea of capturing daily life in photos. Thanks for the idea, and thanks for following the comment trail here!
July 2, 2008 at 10:56 am
I loved this little snapshot of your life. What a beautiful day!
I’m glad you enjoyed. I had actually just been going through the motions with my rides lately, and this made the ride a lot more interesting and thought-provoking.
July 3, 2008 at 9:12 am
This inspires me…next time I go hike Mt Agamenticus, I’m going to have to do something similar…
yes, I do hike, stop laughing!
btw: websense server is down at work…yay! I have access again
I didn’t laugh!!!
Yay to workplace access! Time for you to resume writing
July 3, 2008 at 11:53 am
The photos of those daily things are a real enigma. At first you’d think that everybody does those, but then you realize that there are not any photos of that kind. Go and look.
Part of the secret is that he takes the photo “by surprise”, without premeditation in such a way that, in the beginning, I thought he had security cameras installed around his place and in the evening looked what there was on the films. Anyway, the result is that one remembers countless of his photos, which is also very strange.
I never take any photos myself, and I even wrote a post once with this title: “Why are photos boring?”
July 3, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Oh man, I love the corn fields. I miss them. Weird, huh?
I’ve had corn fields everywhere I’ve lived. I would definitely miss them if I didn’t have them!
July 6, 2008 at 8:08 pm
It’s so good to hear your grandparents are alright, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose everything, but coming out alive and well is the most important thing…
…as for your bike-travels, I must say, yours and Dave’s posts make me so inspired to get out there and bike or rollerblade or whatever, but I’m still at that point where it’s far too embarrassing to work out in public you know? Like I have this unreal expectation of having a perfect round butt in yoga pants before I work out in public…. So for now it’s stil the exercise machines in the basement…sigh..
I think you’re missing a man-meeting (meeting, not meating) opportunity by confining your workouts to the basement
July 9, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I really enjoyed this post and pics. I wish I had such a nice place to go bike riding. Very nice. I also liked how some of your pictures had a story to go along with them. Nice.
Thanks! I had fun doing this. I’m planning on doing another for one of my hikes someday.
July 22, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Aren’t you going for another ride soon? The landscape must be changing now that it is past midsummer.
I’ve still been doing my bike rides, but it’s been so humid lately that I think my lens would fog instantly. I think my next goal is to take some pictures on my hiking path…maybe another bike ride too. Thanks for checking
August 12, 2008 at 2:48 pm
[...] feeling inspired to post a photo blog. I thoroughly enjoyed my wife’s pictorial post documenting her weekly bicycle rides. (Truth be told, she is gone so long that I asked her to take [...]