Bike City

It's been a whirlwind two weeks here, with P off leading a mission trip for church, A and I have been flying solo. And keeping quite busy (which helps us from missing P too too badly...only two days left until he returns)! We seriously enjoyed a visit to Colorado (pictures forthcoming, I'm blog catching up today), had my mom here visiting for several days and then had our first ever garage sale yesterday, which was actually quite the success (note to self - always do neighborhood wide garage sales - amazing). At the end of a long, hot garage sale day, my dear Joanna - who was here to help with the sale, bless her heart - A and I hit up Madison's bike paths for a lovely ride to celebrate. It was perfect in every way.

Madison is a crazy amazing place to bike - just add it to the list of about a million reasons why I love this charming little city (especially in the summer). And while the bike path system is phenomenal, Madison just put some icing on the cake with the new B-Cycle program. Over the course of the summer, little B-Stations have been popping up all around the downtown and surrounding areas, places where anyone can pick up a bike, use it for a spell, and then find another station for a safe return. Brilliant - I love it! And as I was doing a little more research on the whole system, I learned that Trek Bicycles (based here in Madison) donated the system to the city. How great is that? The program, in essence, is trying to replace the need for car trips in and around urban areas. Similar programs exist already in five other urban areas, and will be coming soon to many others - including my new favorite little city of Boulder, CO and even back near the homestead in Omaha, NE. The bikes are taking over. Fabulous.