I figured out a cool way to combine two different activities today.

Usually I either ride into town and do errands on my bike, OR I walk into town (1/2 mile to get there), have breakfast at Ralph's Pretty Good Cafe, do a 4-5 mile fitness walk looping all around the town's streets, then walk back home.

This morning it struck me that I didn't really have to keep the two different things quite so separate. It was an obvious idea really, but when you are used to doing things a certain way oout of habit sometimes obvious things don't occur to you right away.

So this morning it was pretty cold- about 20F when I started out and 25 when i got home.
I rode my 'Grocer-Ramb' down the hill into town and locked it in front of Ralph's and had a nice breakfast and hot latte. Then I took my usual brisk 4 mile walk all around the town streets and around the schools, etc. (I left my helmet at Ralph's and donned a wool hat that I brought along).
When I got back from my walk I went to the health food store across the street and got about one bag of groceries: chocolate bars, tea, calcium & magnesium supplements, 2 bags chips, eggs, coffee filters, granola bars, jam, deodorant. I think the groceries only weighed about 8-10 pounds total. I loaded my bike up and pedaled back home up the hill. The good thing was that after my walk my leg muscles were warmed up so I didn't have to go up the hill 'cold'.
The smaller load of groceries made this trip up the hill a relative piece of cake compared to my first 20 pound haul of a couple days ago.

I really like this particular activity/errand combination. I go for a fitness walk at least once a week anyway, so now I can make my walks more practical and combine two 'trips to town' into one. Leaving my bike locked on Main Street is very safe and I almost always start and finish my fitness walks from Main street anyway.

I had good clothes on today and didn't get cold at all.