Dec 26 2008
Bicycle Memories
Woo Hoo!! There are 365 shopping days left until next Christmas. I always enjoy the time spent with my family over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Shopping was a bit of a challenge this year and all but one gift was purchased using a bicycle, public transportation, and going online . This past week’s weather made for a white Christmas and with a rise in the temperatures it made for treacherous travel when the hard pack snow started to melt and breakup, forming deep ruts of snow, slush, and ice on Christmas day.
I rode my mountain bike to my parents house yesterday. Along the way I rode, walked, and pushed my bike some, slid a lot and fell a few times, but overall had a very good time getting there. Arriving on a bicycle covered in snow, ice, and slush was worth it. My parents laughed and talked about when I was a kid and received a gold Columbia “10 speed” for Christmas one year. It brought back memories of how the bike was too big for me, but once I got it going and was in the drops I remembered feeling like Superman all stretched out and flying along. When my friends were getting bikes with banana seats and sissy bars, I got a bike with 10 speeds and drop down bars that was not as cool as theirs, but it was much faster. That gift started my obsession with road bikes and riding fast that to this day still lives on.
Thanks to parents who always provided me with bicycles to ride in my youth, bicycling is more than transportation to me. Bicycling is a lifestyle and passion which has kept me fit and full of mental sunshine.
This year I added to my Christmas and bicycle memories by riding in deep ruts of snow and slush. Bikes are fun. 
