One of the fun things my husband and I did while off-the-grid was a bike ride on the Gainesville-Hawthorne Bike Trail.  My husband is a long-time bicyclist and a proud owner of a 1974 Carleton Raleigh International.  He’s been carrying this baby around with him since 1975.  Some restoration was called for at times, but it’s close to its original condition.  Out of his three bikes, it’s still the one he enjoys the most.

And, hey, Andra Watkins, bring MTM on over so he can see my husband’s bike, too!

I have a fat, heavy Raleigh hybrid that suffices to get me from a trail head and back.  Locally, we ride the St. Marks Bike Trail, about 32 miles round-trip from the trail head to the Riverside Cafe in St. Marks where you can get a tasty Grouper sandwich.  It’s a fun ride when we have all day, but if we ride after work, we do a 15-mile loop.

Before our recent hiatus, I hadn’t ridden my bike in almost 4 years.  I never felt very comfortable with my bike (even I have to laugh at my efforts to brake and get off my bike without giving myself a wedgie).  I always felt self-conscious riding with my husband because he has thighs of steel and likes to ride hard and fast.  I’d either feel bad because I felt I was holding him back, or pissed off because he would leave me behind in the (literal) dust, even though I would have told him he could.  But on this trip, all that melted away.  I’m still klutzy but I’m not as bad getting on and off as I used to be (and I attribute that to years of yoga practice).  And I’m not self-conscious about riding with my husband.  He can ride how he wants.  I have my inner groove and I’m happy.

I don’t know why/how this change occurred, but there it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncQsBzI-JHc