Myrna CG Mibus - Idyllwild

Road bike or gravel riding? How about both? How about two of the best rides I've ever had in less than a week? Yep. I'll take that. I think I'll call them Big Ride 1 and Big Ride 2. I'm going to start with Big Ride 2 because I just got back from riding it. Ever since I started riding gravel (I've probably ridden it only ten times since last fall)  I have wanted to ride what I call "the big hill." Today I set out with a goal of riding 5 miles of gravel and took off and hit just about every gravel road and dirt path near my house. I rode five miles and kept going. At about 7 miles I was ready to head home but the big hill was there. I decided to go for it. The big hill is actually two big hills - a big one down into a valley then a big one back up the other side. Then of course I have to ride back down and up again to get home. I thought the first "up" was going to be a challenge but I managed it pretty well. Then I turned around to head ...

This morning started in the most fun way possible - After I got the kids on the bus for their second day of school I drove down to Milltown Cycles in Faribault where I met Ben, the shop's owner, for a morning mountain bike ride on a Salsa Mukluk fat bike. I'm not a mountain biker. I've never ridden trails and, save for riding gravel a dozen times, have only ridden on paved roads and paths. I never thought I could be a mountain biker or ride on anything but roads. But after an hour on the Mukluk I am hooked. Absolutely hooked. And I can't stop smiling. At first I was smiling just because the Mukluk is such a funny bike - it looks kinda odd with the big tires and the feeling of riding it is so different at first it just made me laugh. Once we hit the trails and I was faced with all sorts of stuff I've never ridden over before I was smiling because, despite my lack of experience, I was actually riding mountain bike trails with success. I never thought I could r...

Well, it's time for the fourth round of 30 Days of Biking and I'm doing it again. If you don't know what 30 Days of Biking is it's, in short, a challenge to ride your bike every day for 30 days. It was started by two guys from the Twin Cities who challenged their Twitter friends to ride their bikes every day. The challenge went viral and several hundred people from around the world participated in the first 30 Days of Biking. I was one of them. I rode my bike every day in April 2010. And, though it sounds over-dramatic to say this, 30 Days of Biking changed my life. I became a much more active person. I realized I could do things that seemed impossible. I met a bunch of positive, fun people. And I really started "loving the bike," as my friend, Darryl from Loving The Bike likes to say. Since that first challenge there have been two more and I've done them all. Owen and the kids joined me for Round 2 last September . Owen joined me for Round 3 in ...

A new yarn shop is opening in Northfield soon and I had the fun of writing a story about the new shop -  Yarn Store to Open in Downtown Northfield  - for Northfield Patch . The shop, Northfield Yarn , is due to open in September and owner Cynthia Gilbertson is excited to not just open a store but to create a welcoming community for fiber lovers of all skill levels. Talking to Cynthia got me thinking about when I used to knit, back to when there was a yarn shop called Cottage Industry in town. Cottage Industry has been closed for several years now but when it was open there was a wonderful feel of community in the place. The owner, Jessica, and one of her employees, Amy, welcomed me the first time I walked in the store. I wasn't a knitter at the time and had no desire to start but I loved the yarn and found myself feeling both content and inspired to be creative whenever I walked in there. Eventually, inspired by the beauty of a certain turquoise yarn and with encourag...

Numbers associated with my bicycling sometimes frustrate me - like when I realize that my average pace still hasn't gone up as much as I'd like or when I realize that the numbers related to my weight haven't gone down even though I'm biking a ton. But when I get close to reaching a mileage milestone, numbers don't frustrate me - they motivate me instead! I really like seeing my bike computer's odometer turn over to big numbers. When I first got my road bike last April, it was a big deal to see 100 on my odometer's screen. Later that year when the odometer turned over to 500 and I realized I had biked 500 miles on my road bike it was another big deal. Whenever my computer turns over to a number with zeros after it I let out a whoop, smile and ride on - and start logging miles towards my next hundred mile milestone. Today I woke up with the goal of kicking that road bike's odometer over the 1,000 mile mark. I knew I was close -  within 40 miles of reachi...

My kids, Rose and Ryan, started a theater day camp today called Young People's Theater Workshop (YPTW). YPTW is a program put on through the Northfield Arts Guild  during which the kids, grouped by age, write a play, rehearse it, and then perform it at the end of the three week session. Rose loves the camp and this is her fourth year. In her first year I saw a huge change in her confidence from the beginning of the session to the end. She has grown each year since and I expect she will benefit from the camp again this year. Ryan has never been in YPTW and has been somewhat reluctant to go. But, to save on gas (it's a 30 mile round trip to town), make our schedule easier and give me time to work, Owen and I decided that Ryan should give YPTW a try. Given how good the program has been for Rose, we're hoping Ryan will benefit from the program as well. I dropped the kids off this morning and right off the bat Ryan found two friends from his class at Greenvale. He found...

My writing career has opened up so many opportunities for me. Through writing I’ve learned new things - like how to make metal garden sculptures with artist Jennifer Wolcott and and how to cover an airplane with an eco-friendly aircraft finishing process . My writing has given me a chance to write and record family stories, to be creative, to capture a moment or the essence of a lifetime and tell a story the best I can. Perhaps best of all, I've met so many cool people who, through the things they do and say, remind me that there's a lot of good stuff going on in our world.  My writing career has also opened up more career opportunities for me.  Less than a year ago, I was offered the opportunity to write for a newly launched, community news and information website, Northfield Patch . Though I already had plenty of work, I was excited enough about Northfield Patch that I told editor, Corey Butler, Jr., that I would write for Patch anyway. I’m glad I did!  My...