Tuesdays are one of my favorite cycling days. I get to ride my Raleigh Sojourn and pull our Burley Honey Bee bike trailer. This is fun for a number of reasons. One of them is that I think that some people freak out because they think that I'm pulling my kid around in the thing down the middle of 3rd St. in heavy traffic. I seem to get a lot more room from cars when I have a trailer in tow (mostly the case). Another bonus is that I get to pick up our groceries from Mother's Juice Bar on Galveston. "I didn't know Mother's sold groceries," you may think. They don't, but Agricultural Connections, a community supported agriculture program (CSA) hosts their pick-up spot there. Our CSA pulls fresh, organic produce from within 100 miles of Central Oregon. (Click on the link above to see their website and learn more about their mission. And yes, that was a shameless plug, which I'm not being compensated for. I just believe in the vision.)
Pulling a trailer behind a bike is certainly entertaining and rewarding for the above reasons, but it is one of my favorite cycling days not because of produce or entertaining reactions from motorists, but because I am forced to slow down, take a different route and enjoy the scenery. Today I rode down the river trail, under the Colorado Street Bridge (I'll post a picture of this section of path...it's scary when pulling a bike trailer, to say the least), through a couple of parks, west on Cumberland and down 13th to Mother's. The cool wind refreshed me and the pace was perfect for having a look around--something I rarely do on my normal commutes. These days remind me that I need to slow down and enjoy life. That's why I ride bikes.
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