Five for Riding

Five years ago today, I published my very first post on this blog with the picture you see above. What a ride it's been (pun intended). I normally don't do very lengthy posts on here, but I have quite the adventure planned for this one, so before I get into all that, I want to get some important things out of the way.

As much as I enjoy riding and writing about riding, it wouldn't be nearly as special if I weren't able to share it with all of you in so many ways. Sharing rides is of course the most obvious one, but there are also those of you who have given the gifts of cycling through birthdays/holidays, all of you who stop in here regularly to read about what I/we do, those who share these words and pictures with friends, and those who are further inspired to do epic things (bike-related or otherwise) in their day-to-day lives because of my/our experiences. For all of this and so much more, I thank all of you.

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I began this blog with an idea to share some of the interesting stories that seemed to arise simply from being on a bike every day, and also to share some more ambiguous stories thru pictures (see: Rustcycles and Nice Racks). I started it simply wanting to get thoughts out of my head and into some sort of creative space. As unintentionally as possible, it became its own animal whereby I had the opportunity to share, collaborate, inform, inspire, and be inspired by others at the same time. It's never been about making money, but it has been about getting rich through experiences.

Camp Chase Trail, Columbus, January 2020

It's also survived thru pretty much everything my life could throw at it: three different moves, a horrific injury, friends, enemies, multiple changes in lifestyle and jobs...I could go on, and that's probably my favourite thing about this little project that I'll remind you, started on a whim. It's endured. I've hardly ever kept up with anything in my life (that wasn't music) for longer than a few months, so I get a sense of accomplishment thinking about doing this for five years. I guess that means this tiny little space of cyberspace is special to me, right?

Center City Philly, May 2017

I've spent some time in the last few days looking back, which I think is healthy to do every once in awhile. Seeing where I've been and projecting myself to some of the moments I've shared on here has helped me to see how far I've come, and also exposed areas where I still feel I can do better. It's shown me once again just how magical riding a bike can be. Riding can be a transformative thing, binding together individuals of any race, generation, belief, sexual orientation, athletic prowess, choice of lifestyle, and the list goes on. If you've been to this space before, I know you understand this already.

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And with that, it's time for a few trips down memory lane. I knew this day was approaching, and because of that, I had decided not to do an end-of-year post for 2019. I mean, it's still less than a month after the new year. So before I go into some of my favourite memories of the past five years, I'd first like to share some of my favourite experiences from 2019:

• 5) Everybody Wants to be Naked and Famous
• Fittingly, as I celebrate 5 years of blogging, I also celebrated my 5th Philly Naked Bike Ride last August.
• 4) How I Spent (Most of) my Summer Vacation
• After a pretty hectic and somewhat stressful start to Summer, I returned to the blogosphere with a brief update on what my family had been up to in those months, including buying our first house together! It almost felt like a victory lap.
• 3) YOU get a Bike, and YOU get a Bike!
• A few days after my nephew got his first bike, our daughter got her first big girl bike!
• 2) Staycation Sensation
• Because of work schedules, I don't often get to share rides to and from school with the kiddo. I was extremely lucky to share one with her AND my stepdad in September (with a bonus full family ride to get donuts). 
• 1) Tent-ative Plans
• I had done a great number of things on a bike before March 2019, but I'd never gone bike camping. My experienced cycling buddy Jason took me along for my first ride.

Christmas Day, 2019

2019 was a "different" year. It was my first full year living in the greater Columbus area, and as much as you can prepare yourself, you're never truly ready for everything a new experience will throw at you. But that's part of the fun, right? It was still a very good year, and at the very least, I've learned a lot.

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I'd like to start my "best of" five years with events that seemed to be most popular. It's really tough to quantify what you, the audience enjoys, so the only measurement I have (besides trying to remember what people have told me they liked) are page views. So with that, here are the top posts on this blog by readership, all-time. I'm actually surprised by a couple of these:

• 5) Zippity Doo Dah
• The Doo Dah Parade in Columbus is an annual celebration of the liberty & lunacy of freedom of speech through humor. The family and I decided to take our first "big" adventure by biking to it on July 4th, 2018, in the midst of a heat wave.
• 4) Oliver Clothesoff
• My 1st Philly Naked Bike Ride. The PNBR blog post usually ended the year as the top post by readership because SEX SELLS whether you want to believe it or not. Ha!
• 3) The Naked Miles
• My 3rd Philly Naked Bike Ride, which happened to be my final PNBR as a Philly resident (for now, anyway).
• 2) Bike to School
• My girlfriend and I convinced Faith to ride her bike to school, something neither of us had ever done ourselves.
• 1) For the Love of Wash Cycling
• My gut-wrenching farewell to the job that inspired this very blog. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that re-reading it did cause me to tear up a little.

My last day as a Wash Cyclist, May 2018

If you spent a little time to read all of those, first of all, thank you. Secondly, though they may have garnered the most page views and there are some great stories in there, some of MY favourite experiences were left out. If you feel so inclined, help yourself to some of my best memories I've tried to recall. This is by no means a complete list, and these are in no particular order:

• When Worlds Collide
• I took a bike and a train to a job site in Northwest Philly to work for TV-13, my former full-time employer that operates more than 75 miles outside the city.
• The 700 Club
• Logging just over 700 miles in April 2018, a feat I'd never accomplished before, and I'm not sure I'll ever accomplish again.
• New Kid on the Block
• The first ride on "The Bike With no Name," who has now traversed well over 7k miles in 7 different states in just under 4 years.
• 300
• Celebrating my friend Todd's 58th birthday with a 58-mile ride that inspired me to start my own birthday biking tradition...
• 33 on the 33rd
• My first (and so far only) attempt at riding my age in miles on my birthday, which morphed into my Bike Your Birth Month tradition. 
• Beach Bikin' Away
• Riding 44 miles on the Atlantic Coastal Highway in search of beer with my good buddy Amy.
• We Only Come out at Night
• Braving the frigid Winter to view holiday light displays in Philly.
• Everywhere Man
• I was literally all over the place in April 2017, including Philly, Columbus, and Pittsburgh with my girlfriend.
• Bikin' on the Bayou
• Exploring perhaps my favourite bike share system so far, in NOLA.
• The Abandoned Blog
• Biking part of the Abandoned PA Turnpike, which was definitely one of the most unique trail experiences of my adventures.
• Cyclotherapy
• Welcoming "My Therapist" to my family of bikes.
• The 10,000 Mile View
• Logging my 10,000th mile (on Strava) in September of 2019.

Philadelphia Museum of Art (Todd's Birthday Ride), April 2016

Because I love random statistics, indulge me if you will:

• According to Strava, I've logged over 10,500 miles since May 2016, plus who knows how many more before then. Put into perspective, that's enough to have gone across the United States nearly four times. Side note, I'd still like to do that one day.
• *Only* 1,439 of those miles were work-related, much less than I thought before I looked it up. Still, that's more than 5 times the width of Pennsylvania, and nearly 7 times the width of Ohio.
• I've published 491 posts on this blog, which baffles me. Nearly 100 posts a year. I never imagined being capable of coming up with that many ideas. You never know until you try, right?
• Since this adventure began, I've been on two wheels in 9 different states and 2 different countries (so far).

New Orleans, LA, December 2018

So what do the next five years hold? You know me better than to try to predict that. About the only thing I can guarantee you is that my family and bikes will be involved. Thanks as always for riding along, and here's to many more miles and adventures.

I wrote the bulk of today's post before yesterday's tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna. Whether you were a fan of his or the game of basketball or not, it's a tragic event involving a larger-than-life figure that should be another reminder to us all: appreciate what you have, be thankful and kind, and love your loved ones deeply every single day. I'm as guilty of forgetting to do this just like almost everyone, so I hope we can all be better, together. Tomorrow is never guaranteed for anyone.

A Strong December

Perhaps you've seen my Instagram/Twitter/Facebook posts featuring the hashtag #bikeyourbirthmonth. Perhaps you haven't. Either way, if you're reading this, thank you for stopping by. I'd like to let you know a little bit about what I've been doing this month and why I'm doing it.

Born out of the spirit of April's 30 Days of Biking, I've been attempting to ride every day during December, which happens to be my birth month (in case you didn't guess that by now). I have no mileage goal or any other goal really, other than riding a bike at least once a day.

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Back in 2016, I was inspired by my friend Todd's tradition of riding his age in miles on his birthday, a tradition I was able to join in that year, and also in '17 and '18. This led me to attempt an annual birthday ride of my own starting in 2016 as well.

Even though that ride went off mostly without a hitch, it was difficult to plan around weather in late December. The next year, I decided instead to attempt to ride every day for the whole month, and my new favorite birthday tradition was born. I realize that riding every day sounds more difficult than riding just once, but if you think about it in terms of daily routine, it's actually much easier to tackle 31 short rides as opposed to planning out one big ride.

This is my third attempt, and as always, every successive attempt is a little different. The big adventures haven't really come out of nowhere like they typically have for me during these challenge months, but there is something satisfying about riding every day and realizing you've logged over 40 miles without really noticing. Rest assured, I'll be sure to post if anything crazy happens. I did convince the family to join me for a couple quick rides this month, so who knows?

I don't do this for the adventures, though they are a nice cherry on top. It's really about doing what makes you happy, and the holidays are supposed to be a season of being thankful and rejoicing and all of that. Biking makes me happy, and...

The biggest ulterior motive is to encourage all of you to do what makes you happy, especially if it involves cycling. If you feel so inclined to join me, join me, not just in December, but during your birth month too. I realize we're already more than halfway thru the month, but it's never too late to jump off the deep end hop on your bike, provided you haven't already packed it away for the Winter.

There are still 15 days to go in 2019, and with that, plenty of time to ride. Let's do it.

There's Snow Stopping me...or is There?

The calendar still says it's Autumn, but Mother Nature unexpectedly dumped a few inches of snow on us Monday night, about two-thirds of the way through the season. As someone who works outside on an almost daily basis, I'm pretty well accustomed to the changing of the seasons and can work through just about any sudden variation in the weather. However, attempting to apply fertilizer to a lawn covered in snow would be futile, so my boss has called us off the last couple days.

Not one to be kept inside (I did shore up a few indoor projects in the homestead), I kept up with my "usual" errands in spite of temps hovering in the mid-20° range:

If you're eagle-eyed, you can see the Big Splash Water Park in the background:

It goes without saying, it's not a place you'd want to be on days like yesterday and today. At any rate, you can see that paved surfaces weren't too adversely affected by the snow, and school wasn't even delayed by this quick blast of Winter weather. I had very little difficulty getting to and from the grocery store yesterday:

That said, I'm well aware that trying to run errands on a bike in this weather is anything but usual. I was the only cyclist I saw on the road yesterday and today. I totally understand why most people don't want to do this sort of thing. I'll also say that once you try it, it gets easier every time after that.

Now that I've done this a time or two hundred, the only real difficulty is dressing for the occasion, which is simply a matter of taking the time to do so. I'm a bit old-school in my approach to gearing up for this sort of weather (which honestly isn't that extreme, in my opinion, but I've been doing this for a few years). I usually start with a standard balaclava for my head and neck:

I like my balaclava because it's not as cumbersome as a beanie and scarf combination, it's easy to pull the lower half up over your mouth/nose area for colder conditions, and it also fits nicely under a helmet:

I also go with traditional thermal long johns under my pants and socks, which have always worked better for me than any of the spage-age Under Armour style fabrics. This week's weather wasn't quite cold enough for me to switch to the ultra thick wool socks just yet. My regular crew socks did just fine:

I usually wear a thermal long-sleeved top in addition (you can sort of see it in a couple of the pics up there), and if all else fails, supplementing with the old-fashioned beer jacket never hurts:

The last remark was half sarcasm. Excessive liquid consumption in cold weather does not make you warmer (including hot cocoa, tea, or coffee). I just had to work in a plug for Grove City Brewing, one of my favourite local watering holes, which I decided to visit during today's errands. Not surprisingly (again), I was the only one who made use of the bike rack today:

Lest you think I only ventured outside to go day-drinking, I did also stop at the mailbox (because I'm an old man who still mails checks to pay bills):

And I went back to the grocery store to get some additional items for dinner tonite. One more time, I was the only one at the bike rack:

 

Obviously, since I'm typing this post, I've survived my short ventures into the outdoors over the last couple days. I'm happy I was able to get at least some physical activity accomplished in spite of lackluster conditions, but I'm also hopeful this will move out before the weekend. There's still a month left in Autumn, after all...

Good to Roll:

I was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday and spent most of the day sleeping off a debilitating seasonal cold that I usually get around this time of year. Despite this, Fall is still one of my favourite times of the year, and I wasn't about to let illness deter me from my favourite monthly ride (the Roll: Bicycles Pub Ride) during the most beautiful season. I'm always glad in the end when I decide to ride as opposed to, well, not riding.

We are in the full throes of mid-Autumn, which makes even the most mundane of settings look strangely beautiful:

As has become my routine for these rides, I took the bus into downtown to avoid some potentially dangerous experiences on the road getting there. I know it looks gray and overcast, but I think that actually makes even better conditions for riding:

It was warm enough that there were actually some crew teams rowing on the Scioto near the meet up:

Not my cup of tea, but kudos for being outside and active. From our standpoint, I guess the weather was a little chilly for some people, as we had a rather modest turnout for this month's ride. Only about 2 dozen of us:

That certainly didn't dampen the enthusiasm. In the spirit of the season, one rider chose to decorate his bike accordingly:

Nice work, Bud. I also think my bike just looks brighter under gray skies:

We headed out around 7PM. Unfortunately, we were just a mile or two from the start when my buddy Jim got a flat:

After helping him on his way, he decided to head home due to lack of extra tubes, and also being closer to home than we would be at any other point of the ride. I can't blame him. Thankfully, this sort of fate has yet to befall me on these rides. Anyway...

Due to the delay, I didn't get any pics at the first stop (Sideswipe Brewing). I've been there several times before anyway, so you've likely seen what they're all about. SO, on our way to the second stop of the nite, we found that the Scioto Trail had been blocked by the Light the Night Walk, so we had to make a slight detour. Fortunately, the streets in the area had also been blocked off for the occasion, and we took full advantage:

That was a nice little surprise, and arguably more enjoyable than riding the trail. I mean, being on a street with no cars is practically a cyclists' ideal scenario.

We ended up in downtown Columbus at Platform Brewing for our 2nd stop of the nite:

Other than providing a nice view of downtown, I don't much care for this place, especially since they were purchased by Anheuser-Busch. I'm hoping they remove this stop from future rides. But that's another discussion for another day.

I pretty much stopped taking pics at this point, but I did snap one more of Bud's bike, which had switched to Christmas-style lighting by this point:

Bonus points for versatility. The ride continued on for one more stop after this, and ended at BrewDog in Franklinton, a place we have also frequented many a time. I hopped the bus after enjoying some food and a beverage. A no frills and very few surprises ride was just what I needed yesterday evening. I'm extremely happy I did it because it's rainy and miserable today, so riding may be very limited if it happens at all. However, this is a good opportunity for some much needed maintenance. Enjoy your weekend!

A Rainbow of Emotions

Last night was the night of the monthly Roll: Bicycles Pub Ride around Columbus, an event I always get pretty excited to attend. I didn't anticipate that my girlfriend and I would be met with a somewhat sad event during the course of the evening, but that's why we ride, because you never know what's going to happen.

Let's start with the good. For starters, I was pretty stoked that I received a new cycling jersey in the mail yesterday afternoon, just in time for the ride:

This jersey encompasses much of the nerdiness in my life. I ordered it from Uni Watch, which is a blog dedicated to sports uniform minutiae. I've been following it since I was in college (probably since about 2003, which is pretty crazy to think about, right?). The manager of the blog rides a bike every day, so creating a cycling jersey to support the site seems natural.

I give credit to Adelph Wear for doing a great job with the customization of these. The design is based off the (in)famous Astros Tequila Sunrise baseball jerseys of the 70's and 80's, and rendered in Uni Watch colors gradient. The site slogan "For People Who Get It" is printed inside the collar. The rear features a four pocket design including one zipper pocket:

The jerseys also included two personalization options. One, the Uni Watch 20th anniversary "patch" on the right sleeve:

Two, a custom number and NOB (name on back). I chose to go with a NickNOB (nickname on back):

Pretty great stuff! So, after I was done gushing over my latest purchase, we headed out and popped our bikes on the bus to head to downtown. We decided to get a quick bite and a beverage before the ride began. Due to our dilly-dallying, we just barely made it to the roll out, so I don't have any before pics. Trust me when I say the turnout was strong, as the evening was quite gorgeous for riding:

After a short 5+ mile jaunt down the Scioto Trail, we arrived at our first stop, the BRAND NEW Columbus Brewing Company tap room:

It should be noted that CBC is not a new brewery. In fact, they are the oldest craft brewery in Columbus, and they once operated a restaurant closer to downtown (that actually closed just after I moved here). This is their first taproom expansion, though, and it's pretty nice:

There's also a small outdoor area. My girlfriend appeared to have enjoyed it:

If you're in the area and do decide to venture here, it is worth noting that the road leading up to the brewery is not the most bike-friendly, especially at night, so travel in numbers if at all possible (like we did).

Conversely, we had started out the evening intending to branch off at some point, as the last few stops on the route were places we have visited multiple times recently. We decided to do so after the first stop above, and headed back to the Scioto Trail to continue our adventure closer to downtown.

That was, until we stumbled upon a stray kitten on the trail attempting to cross a bridge over the river. We are ardent cat lovers, and we didn't want to leave the little guy (or girl) behind, so we spent nearly 45 minutes trying to convince it to come over to us.

After several failed attempts that were thwarted by general kitten shy-ness and other passing riders scaring it away, we succeeded! I had a hell of a time trying to keep it calm as I held it to my chest and gently petted its fur, but eventually I was able to place the black fuzzball in my bike bag. I closed up everything but a hole large enough for its head to poke out. I had no idea where we were going to take it just yet, but closer to the city seemed like a good idea.

Well, at least I can say we tried. Less than a mile down the trail, I felt a bump but I didn't think I rode over one. I asked my girlfriend if she could see the kitten in my bag. When she said no, we stopped immediately. We looked back, and sure enough the little critter had jumped out, but was still walking towards us.

We tried again to lure it back to us, but this time it crawled under a fence and disappeared into the woods beyond, which appeared to have a steep downhill slope. We then heard a scared kitten cry, and although it didn't sound like it was in any real danger, we knew that we couldn't do any more, and moved on. In all of this midst, we became overcome with an inexplicable sadness, and that's when I realized I'd never even paused to take any pictures.

We did eventually continue our adventure by making one final stop at Elevator Brewing in downtown Columbus. At this point, we sorely needed a beer to lift our spirits. Also, food:

Thankfully, the remainder of the evening was far less eventful. Hopefully the cat is OK, and hopefully next month's ride doesn't feature such a wide range of emotions. That said, it's partially our fault for veering off the planned route. Maybe we'll stick to the plan next time? Nah. What would the fun be in that?

Phlashback

I'm a bit late on this post. It used to be when I went away for a few days, I'd come back and everything would be right back to normal. Owning a house and having a family has changed that, and sometimes catching up takes days, or even weeks.

Anywho, hectic schedule aside, I did still want to make some time to write a little more about my experience in Philly last month, even if it took me several weeks to get it done. See, I'd decided to take a trip there in August for several reasons, the main one being the Naked Bike Ride. I also really, really missed my city and I really, really needed some time to myself, and some time to visit friends.

I rolled in on a Friday morning after splitting the drive overnight. I parked my car in South Philly, where it would stay until Sunday afternoon:

As you can see, it was gray and overcast, and at times the weather did turn rainy and misty. It didn't really matter, because I wasn't going to NOT ride a bike in Philly. After stopping at my macrobiotic counselor for a sorely needed health consultation, I headed out for some errands and explorations. It's interesting to see how the city changes just a little bit each time I return. For starters, there's now a two-way buffered bike lane on South 11th St, which is a street I used to use daily for commuting:

It's an improvement, for sure, but as is usually the case in Philly, these projects get segmented and interrupted. Turn around 180º from this exact spot and the scene looks much different:

There's also the inherent flaw that cars will undoubtedly back too far into the bike lane, but other than that U-Haul truck up there, I didn't see too many problems with this on that particular day. Anyway, I ventured on and headed west to stop by a "new" microbrewery in Point Breeze:

Despite the ladder, the place was open. It's not really a new brewery, but rather a satellite location of Dock Street Brewing, which is actually Philadelphia's first craft brewery (their home base is currently in West Philly). I'm happy to report that the beer is still quite tasty and photogenic. It also pairs well with a book:

After enjoying that and a light lunch, I continued on toward Center City for some additional errands. Sadly, I happened upon this building being torn down:

It's tough to see in the view above, but there was a mural bearing the phrase "Philly the Bern" on the side of the building. Here's how it (and my bike) looked in 2016:

It's sad because that particular moment was part of a really memorable bike ride with some really wonderful people. It's also sad because I really dislike when art of any form is demolished, and I really hate it when old buildings are torn down rather than rehabilitated (I understand that sometimes there are safety issues, but still). I mean, some buildings have been around for more than 200 years, like this rather famous one I passed by during my gallivanting: 

If you are unfamiliar, that building is Independence Hall, which is currently undergoing some rehabilitation work of its own (not pictured). Of the many things I miss about Philly, riding past insanely old buildings and pieces of American history on a daily basis are some of those things I took for granted and now would give anything to have back. They are truly magical. But this isn't supposed to be a sad post, so we'll move on.

I stopped for a beer in Old City in mid-afternoon (no pictures, it was kinda unremarkable) when I received a call from my buddy Dan, who was graciously putting me up for the weekend. He needed some beer and other adult beverages for the weekend and asked if I could pick them up on my way back to South Philly. Of course I agreed. Not wanting to move my car, I did a couple runs on the bike. It looked a little ridiculous at times, but it got the job done:

I then biked to dinner in Bella Vista with my old bosses from the Strengthening Health Institute before biking back to South Philly for karaoke at the end of the night. It was quite a full day, and most of it was connected via bicycle.

All of those little trips added up to nearly 20 miles of biking, which wasn't unusual for me in my Philly days, but certainly isn't common in my suburban life. I tacked on another 17 the next day (including the Naked Bike Ride), and for a brief 48 hours, I felt completely at peace with the universe...because I was doing everything via bicycle once again.

I mentioned in a recent post that I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping cycling included as part of my daily routine. For the most part, I haven't had to force rides into this routine of late, but there have been a few. When I lived in Philly, I never had that problem. I know that's one of the reasons I miss her so much, and why I really, really needed to visit again last month. She just makes biking so much easier, despite what the detractors (myself included) have said.

So until next ride, I'll miss you, old friend...