Midland by bike

When we return (it seems it is no longer "if", according to Kathy) we will have to take at least a couple of days and rent bicycles, to see the place the way I saw it then. Although I was the passenger on our visit, so I could navigate by map and memory, it was just too different. (I didn't learn to drive until my family moved to California.)

We both noticed during our visit the numbers of folks getting about by bike. Of course it was a weekend and they were mostly leisure rides, but Midland is very well set up for cycling. I say this from the perspective of living in a city that for whatever reason calls itself the cycling capital of the Pacific Northwest (the drivers here are fairly cycle-friendly, even for the region) and as a cycle-commuter for many years -- until we bought a house where it became too dangerous (narrow, winding, high-speed roads).

I miss the cycle-commute; over time I perfected my commuter bike to the point where experienced cyclists look at it in puzzlement: French frame, mountain bike gearing so low I could sit and spin up hills that have the young bucks standing on their pedals, 30-year-old randonnee bars (fit me perfctly but long off the market -- I have a spare set), bar-end friction shifters, mountain bike pedals, rack, fenders and mudflaps...

Here I rode year-round except for snow or marginal health, or when the river flooded the trail in spring. I guess in Midland I'd not be riding for about 3 months, though as a MDN paperboy I rode most every day.

Funny to think my shortest daily commute here (7 miles) was rather a bit longer than my furthest ventures in Midland: whether it was the long haul to visit Gloria, Judy, or Sidney. The last such ride is memorable: I rode out midwinter in the slippery snow&ice with skates in the rack, struggling but managing to stay upright... until I was in front of her house, right in front of her, where to my embarrassment I slipped and fell, getting soaked.