I have always loved to ride my bike.
Ever since I was little.
The minute the training wheels were off - look out world. I was on a tear.
My brother and I got BMX bikes at one point and used to make ramps and tricks and got pretty good at it. To this today I'm surprised that neither one of us killed ourselves or at least broke something major on our little bodies.
As I got older I always tried to get out and ride my bike when I could.
I moved to Costa Mesa - didn’t ride too much when I was married due to the fact that I had a rather large husband who wasn’t much of a bike rider.
After the divorce I moved to the other side of the freeway and started riding my bike again. I rode to the beach. I rode to the grocery store. I rode to get sushi. I rode as much as I could. I loved the fact that I was so close to the beach that I could ride there and back.
I moved back home to Orange and was a little bummed out that there weren’t many places that were really bike friendly. Traffic doesn’t seem to care you’re on your bike and it's safer to ride on the sidewalk which isn’t all that great either.
Orange is working on becoming more bike friendly though, and one of the huge improvements that has happened recently is they opened the Santa Ana bike trail.
See what used to be across the street from my mother's house was an Orange Grove and behind that the "Gravel Pit", this was of course an actual quarry that made gravel and cement. In between that was the Santa Ana Riverbed.
As a kid we used to hike and cause all kinds of trouble back there. We'd sneak into the quarry or hike down to the reservoir and hop the fence for late night illegal swims. Then they tore it all down and build condos. I was heartbroken when I watched my memories bulldozed away. Well over the years, as things do, they change and grow. The quarry has since been replaced with Grivalda Park. It's a great little park and has a huge sports complex now. This is where I take my boxing burn and zumba classes. The best part of all - they opened the bridge that now means I can walk there!!!! They have also opened up the Santa Ana Bike Trail. It will hopefully eventually hook up to the beach trail that one way goes to the beach and the other direction to Corona somewhere. There's a slight hold up in the Floral Park area of Santa Ana. But right now it goes all the way through from moms house to Hart Park and under to where it stops under the 5 freeway.
Today I went the other direction since the just opened up the trail that goes under Collins and around the reservoir. It goes all the way around and up to Cannon street. Somewhere up there you apparently can take a detour and hop on to something that goes up to Santiago Canyon area but I haven’t got that far yet. Today I just made it to where the path actually stops. Which was a pretty decent ride.
Now - as you read this you probably think I'm one of those fancy bike riders with the fancy bikes and colorful outfits and helmets.
No.
I have a Pink Panther beach cruiser. It has lights for night time riding and a metal black basket. It's super cute and I love so much! I do actually believe that I have the cutest bike in the whole wide world.
The downfall?
It's a beach cruiser.
When I ride bikes with friends, most of them have those fancy bikes. So when we hit hills I have to holler at them to wait up as I'm standing on my bike pedals and huffing it up the hill at a much slower pace.
I do love my beach cruiser and I will ride it as much as I can, but I'm actually starting to wonder if I should look into one of those fancy bikes with the speeds or whatever magical think they do that makes for more smooth distance riding. I'm pretty sure you will never see me in a race or anything, but I really do love to bike around and adventure. Find things. Find new places. See where trails go. I also wonder if I would be one of those people that would really dig mountain biking. Again - beach cruiser wouldn’t quite work.
I'm not sure what to do about this. My finances are super limited and I can’t imagine ever being able to afford one of those fancy bikes, and a helmet, and a colorful bike outfit and then knowing what the hell to do with the thing once I had it. (What's a gear?)
But for now, this little outdoor nature lover is cruising around town on her adorable Pink Panther Beach Cruiser. And today was really lovely.
I couldn’t seem to find anyone to accompany me on my curiosity ride to see where the other end of the path went, so I grabbed my camera and rode solo.
It was a little chilly but not too bad.
People were so friendly, saying hello, smiling or waving.
I tend to get lost in my thoughts when I ride alone.
I stopped a few times on my way back to snap a few shots playing with a few settings I hopefully actually learned in my photo class.
I felt good.
I'm really proud of myself for following through with things so much better. Doing things I really do love even if there's no one to do it with.
I live in SoCal. I can’t take for granted the fact that we can pretty much do outdoorsy stuff all year around.
Cheers to beautiful weather and the health to enjoy it.
Below are a few shots I snapped today.
It was a good day.
