Why Would July to Me?

Well, I wouldn't. I took it kinda easy on the bike this July, but I still had my share of fun. I didn't log a TON of miles, but I did bike in three different states, starting in Virginia near my girlfriend's family cabin:

I've never seen a regular rural road with signs that allow golf cart traffic, but there we are. I guess it kinda makes sense. It's a pretty quiet and low-traffic road:

On my way back to the house, I spotted this little guy and helped him across the road:

I opted for the bike you see above, but I had another option that might look familiar if you're a longtime and eagle-eyed reader of this blog:

It's the same model bicycle that Rachel's sister let me borrow on a few occasions when we visited her house for some long weekends. Small world, right?

Back home in Ohio, I mostly kept to short rides around the neighborhood for errands and such as usual. Some were more visually appealing than others:

The next weekend, we found ourselves in Put-In-Bay, Ohio, which barely feels like Ohio at all. It's an island town on Lake Erie with a rich history and some great views. I'm glad our B&B had free bike rental:

Back home again, I broke a shifter cable on My Therapist, so it seemed like a good enough time to get a tuneup from my friends at Heritage Cycles:

She was well overdue. Speaking of Heritage, I was finally able to join at least one group ride on a Wednesday night:

And last, but certainly not least, I crossed over the 10,000 mile mark (unofficially, of course) on The Bike With No Name whilst riding in and around Pittsburgh on the final weekend in July:

I rewarded myself with some Phillies baseball on Saturday evening, complete with a gorgeous fireworks display to cap off the night:

I fit in once more solid ride on Sunday morning before heading back to Ohio:

I've been quite busy on non-cycling related business this Summer, but I've still been able to get some good moments in on the bike. I can't believe it's August already. Where does the time go?

Hey June

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of Summer, and I did my best to kick off my Summer with a productive June on the bike. It did start rather auspiciously though, with the road to the office blocked off due to a police investigation:

Fortunately, it seemed like nothing serious came of this, but it did result in a delay to the start of our work day. From every crisis, comes opportunity. Rather than drive all the way back home, I decided to take a quick jaunt into downtown to pedal a few morning miles courtesy of CoGo:

The rest of that day was uneventful by comparison, which isn't always a bad thing, right?

Despite feeling like we are constantly traveling, we spent a good amount of time in Columbus last month. I got into a nice Saturday/Sunday routine riding into the greater downtown area for various reasons:

Naturally, some of those reasons included checking off stops on the Columbus Ale Trail. This was taken at Holy Trinity Brewing. On the particular Saturday shown above, my girlfriend was volunteering at a convention downtown. She brought her bike along via the car and joined me later in the afternoon:

And why did she join me? Why...it was for the Columbus installment of the World Naked Bike Ride:

Not quite as eventful as the Philly Naked Bike Ride, but still a worthwhile experience nonetheless. Our enthusiasm was a little tempered by some rain showers and cooler temperatures. I'm still glad we made it.

Feeling pretty good after that evening, I decided to keep it going on Sunday:

This is from a relatively new brewery called Understory. It's probably the most beautiful atmosphere I've experienced of any central Columbus microbrewery:

I was on my way home from there and encountered some more inclement weather, so I paused briefly at North High Brewing:

There are worse things that could have happened, right? From there, I continued my trek home and decided to stop for some food at Taft's Brewpourium. I ended up running into some friends:

It was a pretty great way to end a pretty great weekend.

I didn't do as much commuting via bicycle as I wanted to last month, but it did happen on occasion:

Even one day saves more than a gallon of gas and about $5 each time. Every little bit counts, right?

The next weekend I took a few more rides and knocked off a few more breweries along the way:

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Hoof Hearted and Saucy also have amazing food options for diets of all varieties (vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, etc). Highly recommended, especially if you're on a bike. Food and beer always tastes better after some exertion, right?

Finally, on the last weekend in June I pedaled into downtown one more time to meet up with some friends at Comfest:

For those of you who don't live around the CBus, Comfest is a local music and arts festival now in it's 50th year. I had previously been unable to attend since moving here in 2018 but I finally checked this one off the list too. I had such a good time, I forgot to take more pictures than the two you see above haha!

With Summer in full swing, hopefully the adventures keep coming as well. I hope you all enjoyed a safe and healthy 4th of July!

May Daze

While April is the month of 30 Days of Biking, May is designated as National Bike Month. I don't usually get as "into" the latter as much as the former, but I did want to do my due diligence as a cyclist who tends to blog and offer up a brief summary of my last month on a bike.

I'll start by mentioning that the weather was much more pleasant and predictable than it was in April. As a result, I was able to commute via bicycle on most days. I was treated to some beautiful morning views too:

It was so pleasant that at least one co-worker decided to join me too:

I also spotted some things I hadn't noticed before, including this historical marker on the National Road in western Columbus:

Next time I have an extra few moments on this route, I'll make sure to take a picture of the front side of the sign, too. 😉

At any rate, I did like this old mile marker, and I did get a good pic of it:

These morning rides really are a great way to start the day. Even though I'm using more energy, I always find that I have more energy throughout the day when I'm able to start the morning on a bike.

The Grove City Farmer's Market opened for the season as well this month. Not much produce to see at this time of year, but I did ride my bike to pick up a couple vegan pastries and some local coffee as per usual on one Saturday morning:

The next day, the Columbus Ale Trail officially kicked off for the year 2022, and I celebrated by riding to the first stop to pick up books for my girlfriend and I at Wolf's Ridge Brewing in downtown Columbus:

I rode a little more and then met up with my girlfriend at a new (to the Ale Trail) brewery in Ohio Brewing:

A pretty neat space, right? I'm looking forward to returning some day. There's a decent food menu that I didn't even get to so...

The next weekend, I did something similar, this time starting at Land Grant Brewing:

I had hoped to do a little more riding and a few more stops, but it started pouring in the mid-afternoon by the time I reached Seventh Son:

So, I popped the bike on the back of the car and we drove home from there. Still not a bad way to spend a couple weekends!

And of course, I worked a few errands into my regular biking routines. I'll likely never return to the ridiculous loads of laundry I used to tote on the back of a bike trailer in years past, but every now and then I will load up my bike with 80 pounds of groceries:

That was about it for me as far as cycling went this month. I took off most of the last week due to scheduling conflicts, but ended the month on a very fun note by taking the family to one of my favourite childhood experiences in HersheyPark:

There were no bikes, but plenty of great memories. And chocolate. Hah!

School ends this week, so I'm hoping to start working more family bike rides back into our weekly habits. May went by quite fast, but it was a pretty good month. Here's hoping June is even better.