I Needed This

A great man once said, "Something given has no value."

OK actually, it's a quote from one of my favourite bad movies. You can consider it a paraphrase of the "give a man a fish" axiom. I totally agree with the meaning behind it, but that doesn't mean that gifts can't be valuable.

For example, I was given a gift of alone time this weekend. Those of you who are family people can understand how uncommon it is to have such an occurrence. Rae was out of town visiting friends, and Faith is visiting her grandparents, so I had two nights in this house with just myself and the cats here in Grove City. I know some of you out there probably don't like the feeling of being by yourself, but I'm one to embrace it when I do experience it on the rare occasion. I do think a little "me" time is seriously undervalued in today's society.

Anyway, I chose to embrace this gift by using another gift that was given to me by my mother 4.5 years ago, my bike:

In case I haven't told you this story before, here's the Cliff Notes version: I had a bad crash in late 2015 that rendered my current bike mentally and physically incapable of being used by me. Mom picked out the Trek you see above and gave it to me as a Christmas/Birthday gift that Winter. To say she's gotten her money's worth would be an understatement. According to Strava, we've logged well over 8,000 miles together.

With favourable weather and not much else to do on Saturday, I decided to take a much-needed long adventure ride around the greater Columbus area. I had exactly one destination in mind, but the remainder of the trip would be seeing where my bike could take me. Initially, trails would be the theme of the day:

That's taken from a stretch of the Camp Chase Trail near Galloway, about 8 miles from my house. For those of you who know me, I'm not usually the type to drive to a trail head and take the bike from there - I prefer to start and finish from my house if at all possible. Sometimes that means adding 8 extra miles and a little bit of nerve-racking on the road but...it's usually worth it. Anyway, I decided to pause for a water break once I linked up with the Scioto Trail and reached downtown Columbus:

This is always one of my favourite views. It reminds me very much of the approach to Center City Philly from the SRT. I was about 14.5 miles out at this point, so it seemed like a good place to pause for a minute. From here, I headed east via the Downtown Connector, a trail that I'd not previously experienced even after living here for 2+ years:

That was hard for me to believe. I ride everywhere, right? In any case, it led to my only "real" destination, which was another trail I'd not yet experienced before yesterday, the Alum Creek Trail:

If you look closely, you can see the highway on the right of the above picture. This trail has been somewhat haunting me on an almost weekly basis, because I see it all the time while I'm driving around for work. I have been saying for a long time that I needed to get over there to ride it. Check.

The trail itself is much like any other rail trail, mostly paved with a few sections of gravel and boardwalk. It runs mostly parallel to the Alum Creek (hence the name) and winds its way through some woody terrain at parts:

I had to pause once again when I saw this sight to my left, about 20 miles into my ride at this point:

It happens to be the baseball field for Ohio Dominican University. I envision people running the trail during baseball season and stopping here to watch an inning before heading on their way. In a weird twist of normalcy, this field probably WOULDN'T be busy in July because College Baseball is well over by this time of year. But I digress...

Behind me, there stands a new-ish bridge that made me feel truly spoiled to be riding this trail. I don't think people acknowledge often enough how much work goes into making green spaces for us cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts:

After that, it was more woods and fresh air for a few gorgeous miles:

And eventually, 26 miles in, I reached what I had loosely determined to be my farthest point out, Forbidden Root Brewing in Easton:

Shocking, right? Steve goes on a bike ride and ends up at a brewery. I'd actually fully prepared myself NOT to make this my destination. Because of the recent unpleasantness, venturing to a destination only to find out it's closed is something that happens almost weekly to me. I guess I should learn to call ahead. In any case, my backup plan was all manner of trail snacks and a towel so I could have a pseudo picnic in the woods along the trail. It wouldn't have been the worst thing to happen, but this was definitely a better option:

I did sit outside, but around the corner in the shade. Common sense, right? It was about 12:30 and already approaching 90° at that point of the day.

I can never decide on beers when I go to a new brewery, so I grabbed a flight (and of course some food). It includes a beer named Snoochie Boochies. If you know, you know:

Not pictured: the 3 glasses of water I drank in addition to this. You can give me shit for ordering a grilled cheese at a restaurant, but it was exactly what I needed in that moment. Gruyere on sourdough? It was fantastic even if I knew it was unhealthy. I'd eventually burn it off, right? I had a long ride home ahead of me.

Across the way, I spotted this neat little sculpture/archway in the commons area of the adjacent shopping center:

I have no other details about it. Just had to share because it made the destination seem all that much more "right." My only gripe with this experience is that I couldn't find any bike racks. That's probably the worst thing that happened yesterday, which is pretty amazing.

What followed wasn't necessarily a bad experience, but it was pretty stressful at times. Instead of backtracking, I decided to head west on Morse Road, which has a bike lane. I'll say this much, it's certainly a lane:

It reminded me of Delaware Avenue back in Philly. For those of you who haven't ever experienced that, picture cars regularly violating the 35 MPH speed limit next to an un-buffered unprotected bike lane. Not ideal. It probably wouldn't have been so stressful if I didn't also have 20+ pounds of cargo in my panniers (I decided to grab beer to go, which added to the weight of the extra water and supplies I was carrying).

Nonetheless, I am an experienced cyclist and I survived, eventually making it to Clintonville and opting to stop at one of my favourite bike-centric breweries here in Columbus, Lineage Brewing:

I actually had no intention of stopping here when I set out in the morning, but my route found its way just two blocks north of here and I couldn't NOT stop. I was 34.5 miles out at this point:

You can read the Lineage Brewer's cycling story on their website. They were one of the first breweries I visited when I traveled to Columbus more than three years ago, and I still own a pair of cycling socks I bought that day (also not pictured, but I did wear them yesterday in a strange foreshadowing).

I headed toward the Olentangy Trail from there to make my way closer to home. I ended up back on the Scioto Trail heading for downtown once again before I intended to head south back to Grove City. I ended up taking one of the best pictures of my day completely by accident as I was pulling my phone out to take a completely different picture:

Apparently I had left my phone in selfie mode, and I have my phone set to take a picture when touching the side volume buttons when the camera is open. As you can see, I was having a great time. I'd built an epic playlist for the ride and the right music on the open trail combined with the slight adrenaline-fueled euphoria was...I actually don't have a word. And what was I trying to take a picture of? Just the city, for whatever reason:

What a day so far. I bumped into a couple random people at Lineage and one of them said "Oh, so you're also a cycopath." I laughed, but they were totally correct. They said there's definitely a cycling high, similar to a runner's high. I get it.

I decided from there that I would make one more stop before a final push home, because I'd yet to stop in at Taft's Brewpourium since it opened in the Hilltop:

If you're concerned that I'm drinking a lot of beer throughout this process, know that I consumed more than twice the volume of water throughout the day as I did beer. It was so hot that I'm sure I sweated most of it out anyway. I had a small snack there too (tempura cauliflower - not pictured) before I headed for home.

This is definitely crazy, but once I'd arrived home, I realized I still wasn't completely satisfied with my day. I was somewhere close to 50 miles of biking at that point and I really felt like I could hit 60 (I didn't set a goal - I just felt like I could go further). So I did. After checking in on the cats and using the facility, I got back on the bike and pedaled around Grove City for a bit. The wind had started to pick up at this point, and I was finally starting to feel fatigue. I did make it to one of my regular stops for a quick Saturday night cap at Hop Yard 62:

I rounded out my day by heading briefly westward to take in the sunset at Breck Community Park:

And one final stop to pick up dinner at Grove City Brewing before finally heading home with 60 miles in the bag:

I titled my ride "I needed this," because I did. I'm not a cyclist training for a race or any goal really, but I love to see how far I can push myself. I don't set goals. I just love to ride. That said, I couldn't tell you the last time I've gone for more than 30 miles (even though I came close in New York earlier this month). There's just not enough time in most days for me to do it anymore. Long rides are very soothing to my soul for whatever reason, and I need them every now and then. To think. To appreciate. To literally "ride things out."

My girlfriend doesn't like to admit that we sometimes need some time apart, but she knows it's true. I walked in my house yesterday evening reeking to high heaven but ultimately a happier, more appreciative person for all of the things I have in this life. For example, Faith won't be home until next week and now I only have my girlfriend to play board games against until then. Haha! But seriously...

One of the most difficult things that has arisen out of the COVID situation is that we've not really been able to take time away from each other to spend by ourselves. When the opportunity presents itself, I will encourage everyone to take advantage of it. It's that whole "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" thing, right? We all need to miss each other every now and then, and we all need time to re-charge ourselves. I'm happy I was given the gift to do so this weekend, and there's no way to put a value on that.

Have a fantastic week, everyone. Be safe and be healthy.

100 Days of Cycling for Sanity

Think about where you were or what you were doing in your life 100 days ago. Things certainly look a lot different today, don't they?

Your timeline may be a little different than mine. On March 22nd (which is actually 103 days ago as of this writing), Ohio residents were ordered to shelter in place due to Coronavirus implications, and many businesses were forced to make dramatic changes to their operations or temporarily close altogether. Sensing challenging times ahead, I began a streak of riding a bike every day that I've still kept going through this morning.

Why? The simplest explanation is because it keeps me sane in these very insane times. As I posited in the first sentence of this post: sit back and really think about what your life was like 3 and a half months ago. Think about how different it is today. How are you feeling? How have you managed to keep yourself going through all of this?

I'm going to keep this as short and sweet as possible. This year has been a roller coaster, speaking from my own personal experiences. The one thing that I've kept consistent is riding a bike every single day, if only for a 5-10 minute lap around the block to clear my mind or keep my legs moving forward. If you want a (hopefully) productive exercise, try to list all of the things that you've experienced already this year, and be prepared to be impressed with yourself for making it to today.

We owe it to ourselves to celebrate ourselves every so often. On Monday morning, my 100th consecutive day of cycling, I celebrated by biking 20 miles around Lower Manhattan. The family and I will be here for another few days while our daughter recovers from a minor surgical procedure she had on Tuesday (the whole reason we are here, actually - we've celebrated her as well). I plan on keeping this going as long as possible. In the mean time, enjoy some beautiful yet haunting pictures I took to mark my occasion, and remember to celebrate even the smallest of victories: