Dec 24 ride

Today was the second time in my life when I thought perhaps I shouldn't have ridden my bike. The first time was when I was riding in the rain about 2.5 years ago, and fell on some railroad tracks and broke my kneecap.  I learned to be more careful on railroad tracks.  Today I was riding in the snow and it was very difficult.  I learned that when there are more than 3" of heavy snow, and it's not pristine, it is very hard to ride in--the footprints and tire tracks cause my tires to lose traction.  The city does a great job of plowing, as I've probably mentioned several times already, but they don't usually plow until the storm is over.  I realized on my way home that skis would have been perfect.  I wouldn't have thought of that if I had driven the car so I guess I'm glad I biked but it was hard.  It was very pretty though, as the pictures illustrate:

This is the view from the top of the hill where I live, the start of the ride.

here's the start of the bike path

the Thai Pavillion at Olbrich Gardens

three hours later, crossing yahara river on my way home.  

The bridge crossing yahara.  nothing is plowed.  wo is me.  I stopped at the grocery store and got 5 lbs of carrots among other things.  That didn't help matters.  I should have skied! 

thai pavillion is still there.   only 1.5 miles to go

near the end of the path.  only about 1 mile to go.  

I walked the last quarter mile up the hill I live on.  That was hard.  But I made it home just in time to shovel.  ha.  no, first I ate lunch.  then I shoveled.  but if we didn't drive cars, we wouldn't have these big driveways to shovel and streets to plow, and then reshovel the driveways from the plow piles.  It would be so much easier without cars!  We could either ski or plow bike paths which are much smaller than roads.   We could design transportation for disabled people--smaller vehicles that could ride on narrow roads.  The 4000 lb car is overkill!