A thank you.

Books are lovely to have on a trip, but bicycling and backpacking trips make weight and space considerations come to a head. This year I bought a Kobo book reader, on which I can put hundreds of free classics from Project Gutenberg.

As I was making a case for it and looking through my stuff for some way to keep it closed, I found this patch, probably given to one of our kids by our friend Rick.

This got me thinking...

About all of the people who made my appreciation for the outdoors possible.  I tried to list them off in my head: My parents. They started me camping and backpacking very young. The joys of birds and mosquitos, how to fix a pack, how to paddle a canoe. My partner/husband, who introduced me to cycling and touring. Rick, who taught me to look under the rocks. My children, who taught me to slow down and skip more, even with a pack on and remember how to damn up a stream. My fellow travelers, who taught me new ways to do old things.
Thank you.

No, it does not snow in Buffalo in June

But sometimes it looks like it is.  Cottonwood seeds.  As beautiful as snow, but no mittens required and you can't sled on them.  Or at least I haven't tried.

New Orleans impressions:

Trolleys grinding, with hinged wooden seats, houses built on top of one another, music, music, music, brick streets; there are hundreds of wonderful reasons to visit New Orleans. But is it a good place to ride bikes? Yes! Though New Orleans is not the most progressive city in which to cycle, it has some distinct advantages. In the French Quarter, the streets are narrow and distances are not great, so it makes far more sense to bike than to use a car. In the Garden District, streets are wide and many of the side streets are traffic light. There are also Neutral Zones (medians to people outside the area) where joggers and mountain bikers traverse without worry. Currently there is also a ferry across the river, free to pedestrians and cyclists. The city and its population are making extensive progress in its bike friendly endeavor, building bike lanes and paths and creating bike centered maps. We rented bikes from Crescent City Bike Tours, located on North Rampart.  They worked to find us bikes we would enjoy riding (we are more the road bike type than the comfort bike type). The day began with a tour, which was led by a guy who obviously loves New Orleans and was very down to earth. The tour was very small, so you could hear the guide and were not constantly waiting for the back of the pack to catch up. They gave us a map, which we later used independently to travel up to City Park and Lake Pontchatrain.

Bike Friday- Trendsetting

I so rarely see another Bike Friday, it was very cool to see this group with two.  On the TransAm, heading west, you could see they were a merry bunch. The two women, Jena and Jami were riding in support of Migrant Farm Workers and this is their blog.








And then the next weekend!  Three Bike Fridays! This group was traveling via Via through Canada and jumping off the train, unpacking their bikes, riding around then hopping back on a train.  They seemed to have it down to a science.