My Bike

The other night, my friend and I rode bikes to the theater. As we were leaving, something reminded me of the first time I had ridden a bike here (back then, a truck was parked very close to a building and she went whizzing between the truck and the building like a pro as Bailey and I (being new to riding in the city) stopped and walked our bike through. In hind site, she probably thought it was quite comical. As we were riding to the theater, I reminded her of this and it was fun for her to hear my memory of the ride.

I grew up in the country. To run errands, we had to drive EVERYWHERE. I did ride my bike to school a hand full of times, but certainly not always (as it was a 2 mile trek). Where we lived in Georgia, the only option for riding a bike is if you take your life into your own hands and ride on the road - they don't have bike lanes for errands - Frankly, even if they did I'm not sure I would trust the drivers because they were never trained to drive around bikers. Really, the only way to even ride a bike any distance would be to put the bikes in the car and then drive to a bike path - which in my mind kind of defeats the whole purpose. Being a family of 5, the reality of putting 5 bikes in a car is not so easy  - even with a big van.

The single thing (besides the people of course) that I will hands down miss the most here, is riding my bike. What made me think of even writing this today, was because of my morning errands. I can: go to the bank, the apotheke, the grocery store, get photos printed, pants hemd, the bakery, and shop for clothes, school supplies, eat out quickly etc. all on my bike. It usually takes me about 40 minutes to do everything I need to get done AND I even get a little cardiovascular activity (and didn't spend a penny on gas). My American friend here who lives in a village told me that she has 300,000 miles on her car. Our little car has been all over Western Europe and only has 70,000, it is 6 years old, AND we are a one car family. My bike is literally my favorite possession. I am so sad for the day that I HAVE to get in the car to do EVERYTHING!