{"id":4637,"date":"2013-07-29T08:05:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T15:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2014-02-10T15:34:34","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T23:34:34","slug":"so-i-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2013\/07\/29\/so-i-ride\/","title":{"rendered":"So I Ride"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This story and accompanying images originally appeared on the blog <a title=\"High on Bike\" href=\"http:\/\/highonbike.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>High on Bike<\/strong><\/a>. Author Dee Dee is a Bellinghamster on wheels. She rides because it\u2019s fun and she spends more time on her bike than in her car. She is happily riding in the <a title=\"National Bike Challenge\" href=\"http:\/\/nationalbikechallenge.org\" target=\"_blank\">National Bike Challenge<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/highonbike.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/06\/img_0843-e1372180143292.jpg\" width=\"340\" height=\"255\" \/>I ride because it\u2019s fun. It\u2019s also healthy, good for the environment, and my gas budget, but if it weren\u2019t fun, none of that would matter. It\u2019s what gets me on my bike almost every day, even when I\u2019m tired, not feeling my best, or just not in the mood. No other form of \u201cexercise\u201d has equaled it. I used to love to run but I was injury-prone and couldn\u2019t do it every day. I certainly couldn\u2019t jog down to the store and come home with a 6-pound chicken for dinner. Walking is okay but definitely falls around midpoint on the fun scale. I enjoy it, especially when I\u2019m walking with a friend, but I\u2019m not exhilarated by it. Walking won\u2019t get me out on a chilly, wet day like riding will either. I do go to the gym to work on strength training regularly. I\u2019ve done so since I was in my mid 30s, which means I started around the Jurassic period. But until I started riding, it had become increasingly (and alarmingly) easy to blow off going when the mood struck. Now I eagerly look forward to the gym simply because I can get there on my bike.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/highonbike.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/06\/img_0856-e1372180002570.jpg\" width=\"340\" height=\"255\" \/>And I absolutely love getting places by bike. Doesn\u2019t matter where. Drug store, groceries, hair appointment, library, even my doctor\u2019s office (although my doctor would probably prefer me not showing up all sweaty and stinking), all easily within riding distance. Some places I don\u2019t ride to because the trails won\u2019t take me there and the traffic is insanely scary which I hate because Bellingham is a relatively small city and I feel there shouldn\u2019t be anywhere where I can\u2019t go without fearing for my life. Yeah I know, there are cyclists who\u2019d say go anyway, but I\u2019m not having fun if I think I might actually die. But those places are few so I really can\u2019t complain\u2026too much anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Because I ride, Bellingham feels more intimate. Side streets and neighborhoods come alive with people, gardens, cats, dogs, and even wildlife like deer and raccoons. The trails are full of people\u2014walkers, runners, other cyclists, bird watchers\u2014who smile and wave at me as I cruise on by. I\u2019m more connected to the rhythms of town as they pulse fast or slow depending on the time of day, the weather, the season. Every day is a new adventure. Every day is fun. So I ride.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story and accompanying images originally appeared on the blog High on Bike. Author Dee [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[49,64,20,39,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attitudes","category-bike-blogs","category-encouragement","category-guest-blogger","category-whatcom-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>So I Ride - Washington Bikes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This story and accompanying images originally appeared on the blog High on Bike. Author Dee Dee is a Bellinghamster on wheels.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2013\/07\/29\/so-i-ride\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So I Ride - Washington Bikes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This story and accompanying images originally appeared on the blog High on Bike. 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