Now We're Starting to Roll...

"Hey good to see ya! How ya been?"
- A line heard quite often last night

Things have finally started to get back to "normal" since moving nearly 2 months ago, if there is such a thing. Last night, Rae and I partook in the monthly Roll: Bicycles Pub Ride for the first time in quite some time - my last was in April, and hers was last Autumn. She was debating participating until the day of, but I knew in my heart I needed to go. I needed to have a group ride, I needed to see friends, and so on.

The ride always meets up at the Scioto Mile in Downtown Columbus. Our new path to get there from our house isn't necessarily the most bike-friendly, so we opted to take the bus:

This was kinda neat for a few reasons:

1. Rae had never done it before. Novelties are always enjoyable, no matter how simple.
2. We couldn't easily use this option from our old house. Getting to and from the meetup either involved an extra 16 miles of biking or throwing the bikes on the car, finding a parking spot, paying for parking, and so on. Speaking of paying...
3. Round trip total expenses were $8! A big reason why I champion public transit is affordability. I understand Uber or Lyft may be quicker, but the savings for a family on a budget are more valuable than the money itself.

The bus dropped us off less than a half mile from the meetup, near the Bicentennial Park fountain. We paused briefly to make use of the facilities (not pictured, duh) and enjoy the scenery:

We were joined at the meetup by nearly 60 riders and...A DOG!

His name is Buddy, and he will appear again throughout this post. He was easily my favorite part of this ride. My second favorite part was the absolutely gorgeous weather we had, with some cloud cover and temps in the 70's:

Nearly perfect, I would say. We headed west and reached our first stop at Sideswipe Brewing. Buddy enjoyed his ride, as you can see:

So many riders met up with us that we overfilled the bike racks. We were forced to park across the parking lot and lock our bikes to each other:

Sideswipe is a decent destination for a bike beer ride. It's close to both the Scioto and Camp Chase trails, and for me personally, it's literally a 1/4 mile away from my office. You would think I'd go there more often, but this was actually my first visit since early Spring. I should change that. Their beer is pretty great. Anyway...

We headed back east on the Scioto Trail from there. I ended up being right behind my new best friend for a little while:

The ride was mostly smooth, but there were some minor incidents. I nearly got caught up in that fence you see above due to someone abruptly stopping in front of me (I was fine), and my friend Joe was blocking car traffic and got hit from behind...by another cyclist not paying attention. He's also fine, but has some muscle irritation.

Despite these minor annoyances, we did eventually reach our second stop at Platform Brewing, which features a great rooftop view of downtown that my phone camera does no justice:

We then headed back westward through downtown and finished up at a frequent stop, BrewDog in Franklinton:

After a couple more beverages and some light munchies, we hopped on the bus and headed back home after what I can only describe as a great, fun evening. It felt great to log some miles beyond my usual day-to-day errands, but it was even better to see some people that I've unfortunately forgotten about the last couple months while we've been too busy to get out of our own little sphere of influence. We have more friends here than I realized. That's a good feeling. Special thanks to Jason, Kyle, and all the folks at Roll for everything last night and beyond.

So how have we been? Good, and now we're ready to roll again.

Everybody Wants to be Naked and Famous

I'm all about traditions. Especially if they still seem non-traditional.

In keeping with my own tradition, I ventured to Philly for the Naked Bike Ride this past weekend, my fifth consecutive:

For those of you unfamiliar with the event, it's part of the World Naked Bike Ride, which strives to create awareness of positive body image and environmentally conscious transportation. Yes, it's anything but normal, and that's one of the reasons why I love it so much and I'll keep doing it every year that I'm capable (there is one in Columbus every June that my girlfriend and I missed - I couldn't miss both, right?). It's a special experience, put quite simply.

One of the things that makes the ride so special is body painting, where people get to be creative and even more expressive than their bodies can be alone: 

I usually rack my brain trying to come up with something politically inspired or motivational, but I chose to go creatively simple this year:

I actually broke one of my traditions by riding The Bike With No Name for a second time in this ride. It's OK. He really needed a Philly reunion. Anyway, my message ended up being somewhat ironic, because WHYY name dropped me in its review of the event mostly because of the great distance I traveled to be here. Speaking of, as a Columbus, OH transplant, I've now started looking forward to the ride for another reason - reconnecting with old friends from Philly:

And occasionally you make new friends, too:

I started talking to these fine folks because her shirt promotes "Sunny Rest Resort," which is less than 5 miles from my home town. Believe it or not, I've never been. I'm now certain I'll see them again next year.

The ride meetup had been at Glendinning Rock Garden for the past three years, but this year we began at FDR Park in South Philly. It was a welcome change of pace, and despite being an extremely public park, I noticed no opposition from bystanders like I had in the past (admittedly I wasn't paying too close attention for that sort of thing). It was also nice to start out the ride on a very wide street so everyone could find their place and find their friends:

Sunny Rest showed up again, this time on an old timey bike:

I have to say this route was one of (if not my most) favorite so far, because it went past several neighborhoods I used to spend a lot of time frequenting. Here's East Passyunk Avenue near Los Caballitos (I briefly played softball for their team):

And further up East Passyunk near the Acme and Triangle Tavern:

We also happened upon one of Philly's most famous tourist traps. There were a few jeers here, but nothing too serious:

We continued on to the Italian Market:

And finally back to Broad Street on our way to Rittenhouse Square and City Hall:

I ran into another friend along the way:

We even went underground on 5th Street:

And of course, gotta take an obligatory selfie or two once in a while:

We ended up on the Ben Franklin Parkway where we would eventually end near the Art Museum:

To cap off an amazing ride, Joe Cox, one of Philly's favorite bike messengers and organizer of the PMA Bike Ride, had some leftover tomato pie for those who were lucky enough to be close by (he had delivered several more pies before the ride as well):

And I had to pause for one more obligatory celebratory pic after all was said and done:

And with that, one of my favorite days of the year has come and gone all too quickly. I'd like to take a second to point out that although it's a very fun and enjoyable experience, I do actually take this quite seriously. It's not just about getting naked and riding a bicycle.

I once used to weigh almost 200 pounds. I never used to take my hat off because I was embarrassed by my baldness. I had skin blemishes all over my body. At some points in my life I was on several medications from which there may never have been an end if I didn't change what I did. I was not happy with who I was or what I was doing. In addition to changing my diet, finding cycling and making it a part of my daily lifestyle has helped me make dramatic changes in my life that have made me feel better than ever, physically and mentally. I'm grossly understating here, but I think four plus years of blogging about biking is testament enough for how much its done for me...and so for at least one day a year, when I get the chance to feel one with my bike and myself, I'll continue to keep up with tradition. I owe it that much.



Special thanks to my incredibly supportive girlfriend Rachel, who couldn't join me this weekend but totally understood why I had to be here. I love you, baby. We'll do this again together next time. Promise.


Also, bonus points if you get the reference in the title without Googling.

Someone's Gonna Bike a Thousand Miles...

It could be me?

This was a milestone week for the family. After living in our new home for more than a month, we finally took our first family bike ride in our new neighborhood over the weekend:

What took us so long, you ask? Faith had been wonderfully busy visiting her grandparents, going to Girl Scout Camp, and of course, joining us on our own family vacation. All of that left little time for all three of us to get out for rides together while we were still getting the house in order. She's back home for awhile now, so we'll hopefully get back into our routine if all goes to plan.

On Monday, we rode to an open house at her new school:

That was a milestone for me, because it happened to put me over 1,000 miles of biking on the year. It feels like it took me forever to get there this time around, but when you factor in that I'm no longer riding a bike for a living, it's still pretty damn amazing. I don't keep track of mileage for any sort of competition other than with my own self, but it does help me feel a sense of accomplishment nonetheless. I've noticed a consistent uptick since we moved here, probably owing to my desire to explore my new surroundings. A brief picture roll:

I had to throw in the adorable trash and recycling cans. Anyway...

That kind of consistent riding that is seemingly coming easier to me these days is also making me satisfied mentally, something I was lacking in our old neighborhood. I'm hoping to get back into my routine of writing about my experiences and explorations regularly as well (Grove City and my immediate surroundings are much more bike friendly), even if it's just a simple ride to the grocery store:

I still get strange looks for rocking a crate on my bike. Anyway, here's to a thousand more miles, and many more after that...

How I Spent (Most of) my Summer Vacation

Well hey there, old friend. It's been awhile since we've seen each other. What have I been up to, you ask? Let's see...in the last two months, the family and I have spent time in the following places visiting friends and family:

• Philadelphia
• Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia
• Pittsburgh
• Charlotte
• Bethany Beach, Delaware
• Washington, DC
• Toledo

Oh and for good measure, we packed up everything we own and moved slightly south to Grove City (yeah, not PA I know, but we gotta do what we gotta do). To say that the past couple months have been an adventure, a challenge, and everything in between, would be a gross understatement.

As you can imagine, I/we didn't have much time for biking during all of these meanderings. We all did our best to fit in some rides when we could:

While I don't like to go for long stretches without biking (or writing about it), all of these adventures and the stress of moving will be worth it in the long run. We're now mostly unpacked, the most stressful of times are behind us, and I'm excited for us to have another cycling ocean to explore:

Of course, much more to come. Faith is away at camp right now, but once she returns, we'll finally have the opportunity to really dig in and explore what's out here for us. Despite the suggestion in the title, Summer is not over just yet...