Fun errand ride

[Crankin]

I rarely do these kinds of rides anymore, that I did so often while I was going to school.
I stowed my bike in my car and drove to the place where I get the car detailed. From there, I rode to west Concord, in a very roundabout way, to the pharmacy. Then I rode back home, ditched the pannier and purchases (and made myself ride up the hill with that thing on the bike), and then back to the car place. A good way to kill 1.5 hours, on a beautiful day. Total of 18 miles, lots of road work going on, and I forgot how different and heavy my Guru feels with the pannier.
Off to work. This is the closest I will get to commuting for now.

[SheFly]

Sounds fun! I went and did interval training on your hill last week :) Might have to give it another go...

SheFly

p.s.
Check your PMs

[AppleTree]

I love those days when I can do all my errands by bicycle!

[emily_in_nc]

That does sound like fun! We have managed to figure out routes to do most of our errands here in the Kansas City area by bike. We can't buy all that much, so Costco is out, but pretty much every other place we need to go for groceries, etc., we've figured out a way to get to by bike. We even rode all the way over to Missouri on a combination of roads and bike paths, just to get to a better Walmart than over here near us. It was something like 28 miles round trip and was a blast!

[Boudicca]

I have started extending my (2.5 mile) commute home by riding home along the lake shore.

Not an errand, but very yummy. I rode about 10 miles to get home yesterday.

[emily_in_nc]

Looks like I'll be doing errand rides on my own for awhile. DH has patellar tendinitis (too many hills too soon), so he is off the bike for awhile. Since we're in a new area for us (we've been in the KC area for one month now), and since he learns/remembers directions and routes much quicker than me, this is tough since I normally let him navigate, and I just go where he says to go. He's already figured out how to get to all the various places we go to run errands, where I only know a couple of the shorter routes without consulting a map.

Yesterday I rode up to the library by myself, and in trying to add on a few extra miles, had to pull out the map no less than three times. Today we walked to the farmer's market as his knee is getting to be okay for walking, and it was too hot to ride after that. Tomorrow I may attempt a longer errand ride as we need a few things from the Natural Grocery. I'm sure with a map I'll be fine, but I'll miss the company. On the plus side, I can ride my own pace, which is a bit slower than his. As hot as it is, I don't need to kill myself out there. We'll see how it goes!

[Crankin]

Good luck, Emily! It's tough to be in a new place. But, think of how much faster you'll learn all the routes to places.

[emily_in_nc]

Good luck, Emily! It's tough to be in a new place. But, think of how much faster you'll learn all the routes to places.

Thanks! And I am very proud of myself because I did negotiate the errand ride today with only one small wrong turn that I was able to quickly correct without pulling out the map. It was fun!

[tulip]

Article in today's paper about the joys of errand rides :-)

http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/columnists-blogs/guest-columnists/a-trip-to-the-south-of-the-james-market/article_47483eba-7a73-52a7-8d2f-2b8d8d02ade9.html

[Crankin]

I have seen this same effect around here: farmers market= getting there on a bike, by people who wouldn't ordinarily be riding. I used to ride to the farmer's market in the next town, every Monday, until I started working again. It no longer functions, anyway. Most of the others in neighboring towns, are on weekends, when I am doing longer rides. Since Concord has many small family farms, I substitute that, and it achieves the same goal. Often, I will ride to a farm and stop in west Concord on the way back, where I can shop at the natural foods store and/or eat/get coffee. These things seem to go together.