I’m not a serious biker…I don’t own any spandex padded pants, my handlebars aren’t all twisty, I don’t wear a helmet, I don’t race…hell, I don’t care at all how fast or slowly I ride.

Three Top Reasons for Biking

As other cyclists go past Thaddeus and I, I always make up stories in my mind that they have disdain for us for our speed, or lack of appropriate attire or some other reason.  So I got to be thinking of why I enjoy riding so much:

1. Thaddeus and I do it well together
2. Taking advantage of the beauty where we live
3. Exercise

Good Combined Past-Time
Don’t ever put Thaddeus and I in a room together and ask us to paint the room.  At least one of us will be dead (or at least really pissed off with the other).  Or don’t ask us to work together in the kitchen.  In fact, don’t ever ask Thaddeus and I to work together on anything side-by-side.  We don’t do that well together at all.

So, when we find an activity that we both enjoy and the choreography of our bicycles seems easy and we both agree on bike path etiquette and when to stop for a rest and hydration and it just seems natural and easy to cycle together, it feels like a miracle.

Local Beauty
I’ve posted about this before, but we live within a mile of the Delaware River and in this area there are canals and towpaths on both sides of the river (PA and NJ).  Taking a quick ride to Stockton, NJ and crossing over the river to come back from Center Bridge, PA can be incredibly beautiful and serene.  A longer trip south on the river brings us to Washington’s Crossing (approximately where he actually crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Eve).

Regardless of where we ride, we see tons of flora and fauna.  There’s an eagle’s nest on two of our routes where we’ve watched eaglets take wing and proud bald eagles watch over them.  We’ve seen tons of turtles in the canal and great blue herons and I even saw a fox pup the other day.

This isn’t my photo, but it’s very similar to what I saw.

We’re very fortunate to live where we live, and having the time to take advantage of it is awesome.

Exercise
I would have guessed this would have been my primary purpose in biking, but honestly the other two outweigh this reason by far.  Yes, we do get exercise and yes, I do like how muscular and toned my legs get from doing it, but honestly, I’d be doing it even if I got none of those results.

Which is a good thing, sinceI don’t have to care about our speed or how many times we stop to rest.  I can just enjoy the activity without pushing myself to have it be anything more than fun.

Current Knitting

Since my last blog entry, I’ve finished two hats and I’m almost finished with a scarf…all three will go into the Craft Show inventory.

All three projects are easy to make.  I used a free pattern on Ravelry for the hats which was really badly written, and I tried something different at the fold-over part of the brim.  My change didn’t work at all, so I had to rip it out and did it in the standard way.

The scarf is a simple lengthwise garter stitch scarf.  Many of the craft show buyers want items in colors of black and gray, so if I’m going to knit in those colors, I’m doing things that are easy and knit up quickly.