Day 30 of 30: Perfection is Subjective

Good morning on day 30 of 30 Days of Biking! That's right, it's the last day in April, which means the challenge has officially reached its end. Admittedly I haven't yet been on my bike today, but I will be shortly after writing this, making it a perfect 30 for 30 in April, 5 years in a row. Yay.

I use the term perfect loosely, because I doubt anyone living around here would say these conditions are perfect:

That pic was from yesterday afternoon, after one of two short laps I took around the neighborhood. It was all I really desired to accomplish for my cycling day, and you can probably guess why. It's been raining since yesterday morning, and my boss actually gave us a mid-week day off today as a result (not truly a day off, because I'll now be working on Saturday, but it is what it is). Nonetheless, even a short ride counts, and therefore it kept my "perfect" streak alive for the month.

About an hour after I'd decided to turn in for the evening, I spotted some unexpectedly beautiful colour in the sky around sunset. When I called my girlfriend outside, she looked the other way and noticed a rainbow:

And just that quickly, it vanished. You might say we had perfect timing.

I've got a few things to do with my "free" day, but I'll be sure to check in with all of you later. Here's hoping your Thursday is...perfect.


30DoB Mileage Counter: 314.9

Day 29 of 30: Back to the Boulevard

I never thought I would miss riding a bus, but on the second morning of COTA's most recent schedule change, I realized that I had grown more fond of those daily 15ish minutes than I thought. It's a time I used to be passive, to read, to play games, but most importantly to relax in the midst of my hustle-and-bustle in the mornings. As I'm typing this, I'm just now remembering that I didn't even share my post from yesterday, because that's something I would typically do while riding the bus!

There have been recommendations from the Ohio governor for some businesses to reopen as soon as Friday (at their discretion, of course). My somewhat selfish hope is that this will return the bus schedule to more normalcy, but by far the most important thing these days is safety, so I'll understand if that doesn't happen. For the time being, I'll manage and hope that my car doesn't completely disintegrate.

On the 2nd day of this schedule change, I went back to a routine I started last year during 30 Days of Biking and kept up with some regularity: throwing my bike in the car and taking a ride after work. Now I know what you're thinking: why can't I just drive home and take a ride when I get back? I know I can do this. In fact, I do it all the time. There's just something relaxing about taking a ride after work before I come home that helps keep me balanced. I can clear my head, reflect positively on a good day, get out some aggression after a bad day, and be ready to tackle my 2nd full-time job as family guy. Some people go to the gym after work. The bike is my gym.

Anyway, under threatening skies, I decided to re-visit some areas in Upper Arlington that I used to pass through every day when I would commute via bike from our old house. You could call it a ride down memory lane:

Or memory boulevard, but that doesn't have the same ring to it. Anywho, I'd originally planned to take care of an errand on my way, but it turned out they were closed, so I meandered through Grandview Heights a bit instead. I avoided rain entirely (woohoo) and thankfully, the wind hadn't picked up yet either. This ride also put me over the 300 mile mark for the month! But the best part is that trees appear to finally be blooming in full after a couple weeks of colder-than-average temps:

It smelled amazing. Riding through this neighborhood is one of the few things I miss about our old house. As much as I appreciate and even enjoy riding the bus, some of the neighborhoods I ride through getting to and from it are not nearly as pleasant as this. My girlfriend has been saying for awhile that she struggles to find things she misses about our old place, and I agree. It took me this long to find one, so that's probably a good thing, right?

Speaking of my girlfriend, we did go on a ride after I got home in hopes of doing some more food foraging. Alas, the heavy rains we'd received overnight had yet to yield any significant mushroom growth in the areas we searched, and we really weren't feeling like digging up plants, so we settled for our brief 4ish mile ride before dinner. Better than nothing.

After dinner, I looked at the forecast for the next couple days and decided that since it wasn't raining, I was going to sneak in another ride before dark. I used this one to do some more reconnaissance on local business:

Yes, they're open. It's getting warmer outside (finally) and I'm going to need more incentives to get the kiddo excited about pulling herself away from her computer for a few minutes. Even a ride with a junk food reward at the end is still a ride in fresh air and so on.

Lastly, I saw this in the midst of my work day and it warmed my heart so I had to share it with you:

"There is no planet B." I'm going to have to use that one in the future. It's still Earth Month for a couple more days, by the way. Or 1.75 days as of this writing. Whatever. In any case, have a great Wednesday, and keep yourselves alive. One more day of this challenge tomorrow, and I can't believe it's already almost over, again.


30DoB Mileage Counter: 314.1

Day 28 of 30: Adaptations

Yesterday was an ordinary Monday morning. I was up early, out the door and on my bike before 5:15AM. There was a slight chill in the air, but all indications were that it was going to be a beautiful start to the week.

And then my bus never showed up. I checked the schedule via text message, and it said the next bus wasn't arriving until 7:18AM. I thought, "That's BS. It's gotta be a mistake." So I checked the website. Sure enough, service changes had gone into effect that morning that restrict bus operations between 7AM and 9PM.

For someone who's started using the bus regularly before 6:30AM, obviously this is not ideal. I'm fortunate that I do still have a car that's in some semblance of working order, so I headed back home and hopped in my car.

It's annoying. I vaguely remember hearing about some upcoming service changes last week, but at 5AM, I'm still very much on autopilot. Not only that, I really don't like driving to work. I just don't feel the same as I go through my day. However, I realize there are a lot of annoying things everyone is dealing with these days, and this is just another one of those inconveniences I'll personally need to adapt to.

I made it a point to end the day on a good note, as I was able to sneak in a quick 7 mile ride after dinner:

I'm still not quite sure how I'll adapt to this schedule change going forward, but I will adapt. I can't not ride a bike, right?

Have a good Tuesday, no matter what it throws at you.


30DoB Mileage Counter: 293.1

Day 27 of 30: 1,000 Miles of Therapy

More than two and a half years ago, I welcomed "My Therapist" to my cycling stable. After waiting out a gloomy day yesterday, I took her out for a ride last evening that pushed her over 1,000 miles:

Many thanks to Strava for helping me keep track of my milestones. :)

In case you don't know me very well, I tend to use cycling as a means of personal therapy at times, hence the name. Last night wasn't so much a therapy session as it was seizing any sort of beautiful moment outside in what was very much a day spent inside:

OK, I guess you could call that therapy. The point is, I wasn't feeling stressed at all. I just wanted to go for a ride for no reason in particular, and those are sometimes the best rides:

I've engaged in a good bit of nostalgia recently, plenty of which includes My Therapist. That being the case, I'm not going to look back on our escapades again today. I'm just glad we were able to sneak in some extra time outside at the end of the day. In the spirit of 30 Days of Biking, I did take a short lap around the block earlier when there was a lull in the showers after lunch:

Ya know, I had to have my bases covered just in case I hadn't decided to venture out after dinner.

So what did I do inside all day? A longtime friend from college hosted a World Open Mic on Instagram Live, for one. That was a pretty amazing experience that I'm really hoping I/we can do again soon. Following up on my post from yesterday, Rae and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen making gnocchi from scratch. We paired it with a pesto sauce made from the wild garlic mustard we'd just foraged, and topped it with sauteed wild onion & pheasant back mushrooms. It's not the best pic, but you can trust me when I tell you it was absolutely delicious:

At this point, I'd like to reveal that this is the real reason I took a ride after dinner. I ate a ton of gnocchi. At any rate, 1,000 miles is pretty cool to think about, and I'm not only excited for the future cycling adventures that are sure to come, but also for more food foraging adventures too!

It's already Monday again, and there are less than four days remaining in April. Where does the time go? I'm hoping to finish this month off strong. Have a good week, everyone. Be safe and healthy.

30DoB Mileage Counter: 284.4

Day 26 of 30: The Compromise

When I can be outside, the bike is my preferred experience, but I appreciate any leisurely outdoor activity in pleasant weather. We had a gorgeous day on Saturday, which led to my girlfriend and I both wanting to do something outside. Of course, I wanted to go for a long ride. She wanted to continue foraging for wild edibles.

There was really no losing in this situation, but we did agree to compromise by packing the bikes into the car and heading to Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park, to forage and go for a ride afterward.

That was taken after nearly an hour of wandering through some woods and meadows looking for whatever we could find, or whatever seemed appetizing. We didn't end up finding any good quality mushrooms, but we did gather up a bunch more dandelions:

We also found a bunch of wild onions (some of which are seen below):

We also gathered some garlic mustard, as well as a few other smaller crops of things we may experiment with hunting in the future (but no need to go into detail about that here, really). We finished off the morning with a relaxing lunch by the creek near where we'd parked:

We then headed towards the Camp Chase Trail parking area to take the bikes out on the trail. This is the first time I've been back to Battelle since about this time last year, and I was very much looking forward to returning because...there was previously a gap in the Ohio to Erie Trail that required a small section of road riding through this area. That's now been fixed:

Looks pretty nice, right? There's a serious hill near the parking area, but otherwise, it's mostly flat with a few winding areas between the trees:

After the brief stint through the woods, the trail opens up to what you may know of as a traditional rail trail. It's home to some of my favourite trail signs, including this one:

There was a slight breeze in the air, but nothing detrimental. Looks beautiful too, right? With no real set destination in mind (because really, where is there to go these days?), we just rode until it felt appropriate to turn back. We decided to pause in Galloway for a quick water break about 4 miles out:

We discussed going further, but considering the fresh cut flowers and vegetables we had in our car, we decided to head back to figure out what to do with those before they turned to dust. If any businesses were actually open for us to sit down and have a drink or a snack, we may have decided otherwise. That was a weird realization that I somehow haven't really experienced so far this month. I'm so used to riding to beer or food as a ride destination, and that's not something we can do right now. Whatever the case was, the time seemed right to turn back.

After arriving home, we decided that we could still go support some local businesses, and since the kiddo had opted not to go out with us in the morning, we decided to drag her along in the afternoon. Ice cream is usually a good incentive:


Jeni's is selling takeout pints only for the time being, but you can get cones to go as well (they're in the paper bag) and "build" your own. It's certainly not the same, but it's better than nothing (I also love that they have a bunch of dairy-free flavours).

Not quite satisfied, we stopped by Sideswipe Brewing for a couple crowlers for the later evening:

And then the real fun began: figuring out what to do with what we'd collected while we ate ice cream and drank beer! Well, Faith didn't drink beer, but you get my point. Rae made a couple nice sauces we're going to try with some pasta later this evening, in addition to the dandelions we prepped for future wine. As I mentioned yesterday, I may have to start a new blog to keep up with all of these things once 30 Days of Biking is over.

By comparison, the conditions outside are rather dreary, which makes me really glad that we made the most of a gorgeous Saturday. If only we could forecast more things in life...

If you happen to read this before 10:30AM EDT, tune in to my Instagram feed @ewokawoka for a World Open Mic that I'm joining. Whatever you do, have a great Sunday and be safe!



30DoB Mileage Counter: 278.3

Day 25 of 30: Traditionally Untraditional

I kept up with my "long way home on Fridays" tradition yesterday afternoon, and early on I noticed something peculiar:

If you've been following me along my way, that scene may look nearly identical to a photo I posted two weeks ago:

Those are tank cars labeled for liquid petroleum, and they haven't moved in weeks. That's a pretty clear indicator of how business is operating in this country lately. People just aren't using their cars as much of late, and to put it bluntly, that's fine with me. But anyway...

I wasn't sure I'd have a good opportunity to take a nice long ride after work, as the day began looking rather gloomy:

But by mid-day, the skies had turned beautiful in time for my afternoon commute:

Days like today are why I own several pairs of zip off pants, which can become shorts with ease:

It made the ride home much more pleasant than that angry ride I took a few days ago. I was also blessed with a tailwind for once, and dare I say, it was perfect. Once again, I'm glad I decided to ride to work in the morning...

Somewhat surprisingly, I didn't see many people out on the trails. I did see more stagnant train cars:

I did run into a couple guys who were out for a pleasure ride. One asked me if I was on my way home from work because he saw my pannier. When I said yes, he asked where I was headed. When I said Grove City, he said, "Wow. That's pretty crazy." Yea, maybe it is, but if you know me, you know I'm a little crazy. Dare I say, untraditional:

You might think this would tire me out, but I actually felt invigorated afterward. I had enough energy in the tank to sneak in a quick ride to downtown Grove City after dinner, but I also had enough energy to do some fun activities with the family OFF the bicycle. We ventured to Scioto Grove to forage for wild edibles, dandelions in particular:

We spent the remainder of our evening prepping them to eventually be turned into dandelion wine:

It'll go great with the violet jelly Rae made the day before. I may have to start a new blog on these sorts of adventures once 30 Days of Biking is over. One thing at a time, though.

Speaking of, we already have less than a week to go in April. I know time is feeling irrelevant to some of you out there, but it's still going, and this month always seems to pass by so quickly. I've done my best to make the most of it, as truly "nice" days have seemingly been few and far between.

With that, it's time to enjoy some beautiful Saturday weather before it's gone. I hope you enjoy your weekend. Stay safe, stay healthy.

30DoB Mileage Counter: 269.9

Day 24 of 30: Rain, Man...

The great outdoors have certainly presented their fair share of challenges so far in this edition of 30 Days of Biking. After one nice day, yesterday's forecast called for gray and rainy conditions basically all day. That's been a bit of a pattern this year. Knowing what was in store, I decided to ride to work anyway because it wasn't raining in the early morning.

To my pleasant surprise, the heaviest of rain held off until well after the end of my work day AND I finished up a little earlier than I'd anticipated, so I decided to take an eastern detour on my afternoon commute via the Scioto Trail:

Despite a week's worth of freeze warnings last week, it looks like the foliage is finally coming out of dormancy for the most part. It wasn't the most pleasant of Spring days to be on a bike, but it certainly wasn't the worst. I will say, the air does seem to feel fresher, especially in the usually very busy downtown area:

Due to the potential rain, I didn't make any major stops along the way other than to take a couple photos. I managed to avoid any sort of showers on my ride before the bus picked me up. By the time I got home, they had started to increase, so it appears I timed the weather perfectly for once! I was initially on the fence about riding to work yesterday, and in hindsight I'm really glad I did (as usual). It's rarely a bad time to ride 5 miles.

Even if you are obeying a quarantine order, I hope you have still been able to get out for some fresh air at least once a day. It really is good for us. Happy Friday everyone, and be safe out there.


30DoB Mileage Counter: 245.1

Day 23 of 30: Channeling

Earth Day began about as beautifully as it possibly could have:

Not a cloud in sight, very little breeze to speak of, a slight chill in the air, but all in all it was a great day to be outside:

But of course, that kind of enjoyment can be fleeting when encountering circumstances beyond your control. For example, a pump seal failing and sending liquid fertilizer spewing...well...everywhere:

It got all over my clothes and made it look like I'd just murdered someone. Once it dried, it made movement rather uncomfortable, including my commute home. Beyond that, I spent the better part of an hour coordinating a fix with my boss because I didn't have the proper parts on hand in my truck to fix it. Lesson learned for the future, I suppose. I also spent an additional hour cleaning my truck after I got back to the shop. Needless to say, I was not a fan of how my work day ended.

I feel it's important to take a brief aside and mention that I'm still very thankful to have gainful employment right now, my employer has been pretty awesome overall through this whole turmoil, and a frustrating day does not change that mindset.

I know I just mentioned that my afternoon commute was uncomfortable, but I did inflict a little bit of my own pain in that regard, because I opted to ride the whole way home instead of taking the bus. I actually needed it. Sometimes an angry ride is a good coping mechanism, and this one worked particularly well. I got home feeling a small bit of accomplishment having channeled my frustrations into something that ultimately wasn't destructive even if it was a bit uncomfortable. At the absolute minimum, I spent an extra 4 miles on my bike!

Lost in the shuffle of all of this is the fact that I mentioned it was a beautiful day to be outside, so I decided to go back out for another ride after dinner:

I headed to downtown Grove City to patronize a local favourite, but not Transcend Coffee + Roastery, which you see above. Their storefront is closed completely for the time being, but I supported them in another way by ordering some coffee beans thru their Facebook page (linked above). The owner contacted me and delivered them within an hour of my order placement due to impeccable timing, but typical turnaround is 24 hours:

I loved the sticker on the bag, which is also shown on their doorway:

I do love their coffee too, so I plan to make this a routine until they re-open as normal.

Transcend is right across the street from another of my routine destinations, Hop Yard 62. This was my intended stop for my after dinner ride:

I may or may not be using this situation as an excuse to buy more local beer. In any case, I'm supporting the local economy, right?

I think you can agree that this was a pretty good ending to a day. I'd like to add that while I was out enduring and experiencing all of this, my wonderful girlfriend and daughter were trying their own experiences. They picked some of the violets in our landscape outside while I was at work, and Rae is going to try to make violet jelly out of them. I'll be sure to post an update, even though it's not cycling related :)

Whatever your Thursday throws at you, I hope you're able to channel it into something positive. Be well, my friends.

30DoB Mileage Counter: 233.0

Day 22 of 30: Locked Out

Three times within the last week, I've forgotten my keys at home. I realize that forgetting one's keys is a somewhat common occurrence, but it's very uncommon for me, and to have it happen three times in a week definitely concerns me.

The odd thing is, because of the way things are these days, it hasn't actually been that big of a deal. To start, I don't need keys to start my human-powered bicycle, so that's probably the main reason I've been forgetting my keys. I also don't need them to open or close my front door (thank you pin pad). But the main reason it's not been a big deal is because I'm simply not leaving my bike unattended for very long stretches of time.

All restaurants and most retail establishments aren't open for normal business, so if I do go inside for whatever reason, I'm usually in and out of there pretty quickly. You know, no sitting down or dining in and so on. My bike stays inside the shop when I get to work. And thankfully, I haven't forgotten to take my keys with me to the grocery store (yet), which is about the only place I'd need to leave my bike for more than a minute or so.

I've managed to only lock myself out of the shop once out of those three absent-minded moments. In an odd twist today, I ended up being "locked out" of two coffee shops in Franklinton that are temporarily closed due to the pandemic. Sorry I didn't take pics. I had actually tried to call them beforehand to see if they were open. When I didn't hear any response, I decided to ride that way anyway, literally because the wind was blowing in that direction and I felt like enjoying a joyride of sorts after work. When not pedaling against the gusts, it was actually a beautiful day to be outside:

When I eventually reached the bus stop, I made a half-hearted attempt to show you how windy it was today. Check out the sign to the far right and the sheeting in the middle left:

I feel like this has been the windiest Spring I've ever experienced, but I have no way of quantifying that. In any case, 30 Days of Biking is through three weeks already. You might say it's blowing by. You loved the pun. Admit it. Anywho, here's hoping I don't forget my keys again for the rest of the month, and also here's hoping the pleasant weather from Monday returns soon.

By the way, it's Earth Day today. Do something Earthy!

30DoB Mileage Counter: 216.9

Day 21 of 30: No News is Good News?

Sometimes the days where I'm left with not much to say are the most refreshing.

I kicked off the final full week of 30 Days of Biking with my usual early Monday morning commute:

I ended the day with a rather uneventful commute home (but it DID put me over 200 miles for the month, so that's pretty awesome):

It was a pretty beautiful day by comparison to what we've been experiencing the last week or so, and other than that, I have not much else to report. I rode a bike, nothing too crazy, and there's something strangely very satisfying about that. Last week was nothing short of a whirlwind, so if Monday is any indication, this week should be much calmer. Here's hoping. Happy Tuesday, everyone.


30DoB Mileage Counter: 205.9