Urban Riding and Hooch watching

Today was again one of those breath taking beautiful fall days. We, after an extremely wet fall start, are having our days of such autumn magnificent, that there is no choice but to get out in it.
After a typical Saturday morning breakfast at the Blue Grass Grille, Q and I decided to join the bike club ride to Crabtree Farms. Crabtree is an urban farm owned by the city and is runned by a nonprofit to produce and introduce organic vegetables to Chattanoogans. That is just one of the small treasures of our city that I feel makes it unique and special.


The ride was lead by Sydney Roberts who has a CSA membership at the farm. Periodically she uses her weekly pick up as a chance to organize an easy, relaxing ride for all who wants to join in.
The group was split almost evenly between urban riders with our city bikes and regular clothes and road bikers with bike clothes and dropped handle bars.

Every one seemed to enjoy themselves. At one time when all of my biking was the road biking type, I wouldn't have thought the distance and difficulty level was even worth getting my bike out for. But I am over that line of thinking

It was nice to see the farm and ask questions about its production. It is 22 acres with about half of that in production. They support 60 CSA's, sell at the Main Street Market and to Greenlife and have a U-Pick part of the farm. All organically. That is quite a high rate of production.

I was so busy looking around the farm that I forgot to get pictures. Take my word for it, it was beautiful.
After the ride some of the riders went to the newly reopened Stone Cup for lunch. Here we are sitting outside, overlooking Coolidge Park

Then on to shopping and other errands. The wonderful thing about biking it gets you to experiences just by riding by that was not on your list to attend. Car driving isolates you. Really, the only unexpected encounters to be had in a car are traffic jams.

No traffic jams for me! Instead, all the goings back and forth and along the river gave me a chance to experience the Head of the Hooch, one of the country's largest rowing regattas. Beautiful day, beautiful water, beautiful rowing.

I know I am overusing the word beautiful lately, but what else can I say? Even without seeking it, my bike riding gives me the gift of beauty. Can I help it that I find myself taking notice of it, that I feel it soaking into me, enriching me? That my vocabulary seems to be limited? Maybe I should buy a thesauras.

Bus, Baby, and Bike

 I wanted to go visit my new grandbaby today. Since the baby is out in East Brainerd I thought I would take the bus with my bike. I have learned from experience that if I have my panniers weighed down, it is almost impossible to pick the bike up to put on the rack. Since I was taking out frozen food packets for the family, I was pretty heavy. But I keep my  things in a back pack inside my pannier and I then can easily take it out of the pannier to lighten the load. Otherwise,I have been in the situation struggling to lift the bike up on the rack while the bus driver is patiently, then not so patiently gazing down at me. It is an uncomfortable thing at the very least.


   The bus was full and as though a party was gong on.. I don't know if it was the day, the route or just coincidence but it seemed everyone knew one another. As new people boarded on each stop, it it was like old home week. Everyone was talking to one another and soon I was caught up in the friendly banter.

It was a very mixed crowd-old and young, able and disabled, black and white, people who looked like they probably relied on the bus for their sole transportation and those who looked as thought they probably had other choices. I love a group with a large variety of different type folks.

I even had a touch of old home week myself. A young mother and her two little children boarded. When she sat down she looked at me and asked, in that tone that people use when they aren't sure if they are making a fool of themselves "Are you a Carboni?" I affirmed indeed I was and she said she had gone to high school with my niece, Karen. When she said that, I knew exactly what family she was from-she had the distinctive family traits of a very large Irish Catholic family that I grew up with. I established which of the family she was the child of and met her children (am I really old enough to know four generations of one family?) I told her about Matthew coming home from Iraq for the birth of his baby and I was on my way out to visit.

The whole bus was hearing this conversation and several people joined in on congratulations of the birth of my grandbaby. It was a wonderful ride. Bus riding is put down as a form of transportation from hell but do people really know what it is like? Chattanooga had a great bus system in terms of nice clean buses, friendly bus drivers and friendly people riders. If more people rode them and it was subsidized by the government as much as individual car driving is subsidized, more routes and additional bus frequency could turn this into a great AND convenient way of getting around. I am all for it!

It came time for me to get off.  AS another bike rider had put his bike on the rack infront of me, I asked him if he would assist ome in taking off my bike.  He very kindly did so.  I was just expecting him to take off his bike so I could get mine, but he instead just reached back behind and lifted the whole bike off. 

    From the bus stop it was only a seven minute ride to the home of my grandbaby. I had a most wonderful visit. Indulge me as I slip into grandmother mode-Baby Athens is the most beautiful baby EVER! He looks like his most beautiful mother and is everything a baby should be. My own baby were beautiful and wonderful of course, but I think as a new parent fraught with worry and lack of sleep, it is hard to sit back and truly take full notice. A grandparent has the BEST vantage point in seeing how wonderful a baby is. I basked in the view!

When the visit came to a close, I decided to ride my bike home. I didn't go back the way I came-down Lee highway and Brainerd rode Instead I completed the loop around the city and went down Bonnie Oaks so I could connect with the River walk. It was a crisp chilled fall day. One of those rare days that you just have to feel so grateful in being out to enjoy it.

   It took me about an hour and a half of riding to get home. It took exactly 37 minutes to take the bus/bike combination. The car probably would have been about a 20-25 minute drive. But if I had opted to save a little bit of time by driving I would have missed out on a couple of truly exceptional experiences.


Bus, baby, and bike. What a day! Can life get any better?

Crash!

It started with a text from my youngest daughter, "I need my mom." That got my attention out of my oatmeal. My children as adults are independent, capable and lovely. They feel they can handle most situations better then me and often they are right. I feel proud that I raised them to be so self sufficient.

So it is rare that one will send out a "Mom" crisis cry. But once a mother, always a mother and I go on instant alert. Soon I was on the phone listening to my daughter on her crisis. She was extremely upset and I was no way going to tell her I couldn't talk to her because I had to get to work. So I continued to listen to her as I finished my breakfast, finished my preparations and got on my bike.

    I know what you are thinking - you rode your bike talking on the cell phone? Technically, I was mostly listening, but yes, I set off on my bike with my phone glued to my ear.

Down the hill I went. i was all ears to my daughter-so much so, I must have shut down other senses. What were my eyes doing at this point? Nothing I guess. Next thing I knew BAM! and an OOF from me. I reared ended a car parked on the side of the road. I never even saw it!

(I will take a short break hear so everyone can have a chance to voice their opinion on my safety sense. Believe me, I have been hearing it for the last couple of days. But what can I say? My baby needed me!)

My first thought as I started to pick myself off the ground was "My new Blackberry!" I could see that it had made it much further down the road then me and it was now it a couple of pieces. I did a fast inventory of my body, which still seemed to be in one piece and I scrambled to get my phone. If a car happened by that would be the ultimate end of the phone. I was lucky-only the battery cover had fallen off. It didn't even lose power but I had been disconnected.

After a couple of attempts (ever notice when you get disconnected then both parties try to connect again you keep crossing wires) I got back with my daughter and reassured her I was all right. I did a compete body check while talking to her-bloody knee, hurting spot on thigh, scraped elbow-all surface and superficial injuries. The bike except for the chain seemed ok. The car was unharmed.

We decided that I would continue on my way after saying good bye to her.

Now it is two days after the accident. i did get a nasty bruise and every morning I seem to wake up with more stiffness in more places. But nothing major. In a week I will be a good as new. My bike ended up with a jammed head set. Makes it hard to steer. I will take it to the bike shop this weekend.

And the crisis that my daughter needed me for? I saw her later that afternoon. She said that after she slept(she works night) the situtation didn't seem so major and she felt she over reacted and she could take care of it on her own. That is my independent baby! I am so proud of her! But never the less, my mother hormones are set to go off at a moment's notice. hopefully next time they won't take me to the back end of a car!