What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

30 March 2011

Living Urban

This is what my bike looks like when
I'm not riding it. Except this is an old
pic; the bike now has nice panniers
on the back instead of just a rack.
In case you missed it, I'm a cyclist. Not in the same way that I'm a runner-- I don't enter cycling races or have a training plan-- but I do cycle all over Austin with my shiny, trusty bike. All over some of Austin, anyway.

So I was kind of excited when Austin on Two Wheels announced their spring Urban Living Ride series, for what is at least the second year running (I haven't inquired into the history, but I know they did it last year). I don't know how many of them we'll end up doing, but I do know that it is with great regret that I missed last week's Cupcake Ride. Cupcakes! And cycling! Together!

A couple of weeks ago, I won a pair of tickets on Twitter (yay for Tweeting!) for the ride to Boggy Creek Farm here in town: an organic, working farm, complete with a Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings (although by the time we got there, the pickins were slim indeed-- one must arrive early to get the good stuff!).

Anyway! We did some shopping, got a tour, and then had a lovely lovely meal of food from the farm. I can't remember everything we had, but my main course was Mushroom-Barley Risotto that was absolutely delicious. Chad had some sort of pan-seared dead animal; I had a nibble but didn't like it. His roast potatoes, on the other hand, were fabulous and I had to be restrained from eating them all off of his plate. And dessert was a strawberry shortcake, for which I would be willing to ride much further than we did, methinks. The food was brilliant, and to top off, the ride organizers were our servers. It was a very pleasant picnic.

Plus, we met some really fun new people, which was kind of the point. Well, one of the points. The other point is for people to see how easy it really is to get places in Austin on a bike. One of those fun new people also wrote about the tour (much more poetically than myself) on the Austin on Two Wheels site, if you want to read more about it. And the really happy outcome of the day (for me) is that Chad has finally decided to get a bike so we can go places together. Woohoo!

What's a fun place you would ride to on a bike?

7 comments:

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

All Over -- we have great bike trails. Now to find the right bike.
Great you have a partner to ridw with.

John Teal said...

I like the line "all over some of Austin" :)

RJRDaydreamer

Louise Wise said...

Hi fellow crusader and chicklit writer. I'm popping over to tell you about a competition over on my blog - maybe bike on over? :D

Grandpa said...

Mushroom-barley Risotto - love that!

So Chad has a bike too - that's great. Nothing like cycling together. We did a lot of that when living in Perth, Western Australia (almost our main means of transport, apart from buses and trains).

Happy cycling!

Anonymous said...

that sounds rad! (hippie)





(takes one to know one)

Unknown said...

Yay for cycling... actually I should be honest I am not one to go for a bike ride, however I'm a runner. I used to run cross country in high school and LOVED IT!! It's also gorgeous weather here in Houston so there is no reason not to run!!

Anyhoo I'm stopping in to welcome you to the A to Z Blogging Challenge!! I'm one of the co-hosts so should you have any questions don't hesitate to shoot them my way!!! Feel free to stop by my neck of the woods and say hello! We'll also be having fun on twitter so join us (I'm @jenunedited)!

Su said...

@Mary: Bike trails are the best, aren't they? Riding on the street is fun, but a dedicated trail allows me to relax a lot more.

@RJR: I'm trying to get round to the rest of them. ;)

@Louise: My bike is packed in for the night... perhaps I'll just walk!

@Grandpa: It really is more fun together.

@Charlie: I wish I knew some cool words to say back. :/

@Jen: I do love running, too! This cycling all over some of the place thing is new for me. I'll come find you on Twitter!