Myrna CG Mibus - Idyllwild

Boy, it's been a crazy week around here. Last Wednesday I went for a bike ride on the Sakatah trail. While on the ride it started to rain. Pour, actually. It poured rain pretty much non-stop for the next 24 hours and the river in our town of Northfield, Minnesota, flooded. Big time. To top it off, I got hit with some kind of a cold that had me in bed most of Thursday and Friday. So it was raining, the river was rising, and the city needed people to help sandbag and I was sick in bed. It's a helpless feeling to be in bed sick when you want to be out sandbagging your town. I'm sure, though, that I didn't feel nearly as helpless as some of my friends who live in Northfield who watched the river rise and ruin their homes and businesses even as they sandbagged. Even as they moved things out of their offices and homes. A video of the flooding in Northfield (I hope this shows up) It's now a week since the rain started. The river is going down. Clean up crews are hard...

I have so much to write about, all sorts of stories to tell about some of my rides this past week - rides that included changing a bike tire, riding in the rain, forgetting to unclip my pedals and falling off my bike and into a ravine. But every time I sit down to write I get stuck. I don't get stuck very often. I don't like getting stuck. So, I'm taking all of my half finished blog posts and am saving them in a file marked "Blog." I hope I get back to them. I plan to. The writing will come together another day. But today is not the day. Today is the day, I guess, to read a book and go to bed. I have a cold. I am tired. Today is also the 22nd day of 30 Days of Biking . I rode my bike today, 10 miles this afternoon on the Sakatah Trail in Faribault. Half of those miles were in the pouring rain. I got soaked but still had a nice ride. Really. Well, sort of. It's been raining since my afternoon ride and was still raining heavily when Owen and the kid...

I hauled my bike over to the Cannon Valley Trail today to ride all by myself, something I don't do very often. The whir of my bike wheels and the ticking of my gears got me into a meditative mode as I rode the nice, flat trail. The trees formed a canopy overhead, the leaves crunched under my wheels, my pace was fast, my spirits high and I realized I was on one of the best rides of my short biking career.  Then I started to wonder, what is a best ride? Is there such a thing as THE best ride? Like the very best that can't be topped? Or are there different kinds of "best" rides, like the fastest ride or the longest ride? Can the best ride be a whole month of rides, like I'm doing for 30 Days of Biking , rolled all together to create a best? Maybe the best ride is in an beautiful location, like Italy. Or maybe it involves riding a great race or setting a record. What makes a ride a best ride? I'm really not sure. But then I thought back to yesterday's ride, t...

As of today everyone in my family has biked seven days in a row and are now almost a fourth of the way through 30 Days of Biking . So far the kids haven't complained once about riding their bikes. They seem to enjoy riding every day and I think they like being a part of something big. It may also help that we asked the kids if we should work towards some sort of family reward for biking every day for 30 days. For me, and I'm guessing for Owen, biking every day is reward enough but I figured some extra incentive might be nice for the kids. Ryan on his little mountain bike - he rode almost 18 miles on the Tour de Cream Rose came up with the idea to go to an indoor rock climbing place called Vertical Endeavors . I think this is a cool reward - indoor rock climbing is not something we've ever done as a family and it's unique enough to make it really special. I also think it's cool that Rose came up with an incentive that presents a challenge (rock climbing) and is al...

Exploring the bike paths of Minneapolis and St. Paul is one of my goals for 30 Days of Biking Part 2. Why? Well,  I was up in Minneapolis with my kids a few days ago visiting the Mill City Museum (fabulous place!) and realized that even though I grew up in the first ring suburb of Richfield and live only 40 minutes south, I don't know Minneapolis very well. Plus, I've heard that Minneapolis has a fabulous trail system and know that Bicycling magazine named Minneapolis the #1 Bike Friendly City this year. So, since I committed to riding my bike every single day of September, I figured I might as well get out and explore the Twin Cities! I suppose the best way to explore the trails is to get up to the city and ride them. Trouble is, I don't know either city very well and though I have a map of the trails I'm kind of anxious about just heading out on my own. What to do? I found a "C" group ride through the  Twin Cities Bicycling Club  that promised ...

I dreamed about bicycles last night. I suppose that's no big surprise given that yesterday was the start of another round of 30 Days of Biking and I attended a Giant for Women bike maintenance workshop last night. Still, it was kind of odd to wake up and realize that I dreamed about the new road bikes for 2011 instead of, say, something scary or family related or something scary and family related. But I dreamed about bikes and fixing flat tires and about riding with my kids - and that's a pretty good dream and a fine way to start the day. As I mentioned, 30 Days of Biking started yesterday. Some of you may remember tha t I committed to ride my bike every day last April and that this 30 Days of Biking thing was started by two guys who decided to challenge people to ride their bikes Every. Friggin. Day. for 30 Days. Well, the challenge really took off and about 500 people from all over the world took part. I had a blast doing the challenge and met a lot of cool people along t...