To Iowa, and Beyond

Hello adventurers,

Aside from hoarding wildnerness supplies (hello new stove, hello new cookset) as part of the strange ritual known as a "wedding," and a few forays on my part into winter biking, preparations and riding for the Great Divide have slowed as of late.  Winter biking has been quite trippy (no, literally, trippy as in, "eff, I tripped over sideways in the snow"), but I've been really enjoying it, and the recent addition of a set of Wellgo platform pedals has helped exponentially in the "my boot can't fit my pedals" department.

But alas, with our bikepacking skills, we have settled into planning various adventures for the spring and summer.  And everyone's favorite activity - Iowa road trip!  We spent the weekend down in Iowa City, visiting the Luther crew.  As always, good times ensued, and at one point in those good times, amidst the clinking of glasses and the quaffing of libations, I was asked the following question:

Why do you stay in Minneapolis?  Why do people love it so much?

 My initial answer was that we Minneapolitans are a people that tend to be extremely proud of their city, but that of course begs the question, why are we so proud?  What is it about our city that engenders such fierce devotion?  My thoughts, unsurprisingly, turned to the bicycle.

While this blog is undoubtedly focused around the preparation of two unwitting, overly confident, yet idealistic bicycle adventurers for the toils of the Great Divide, I'd like to think that preparation for the Ride is broad enough to encompass the ho-hum nature of a daily commute.  Whenever able, both Kate and I prefer to commute to work by bike, and while trying to answer the above question, I kept coming back to the joy and sense of togetherness I feel within the Minneapolis bike community.

Anyways, after I blathered on about how much more freeing it is to transport my ass around on two pedal driven wheels rather than four wheels and an exhaust, it led to a further discussion in the car home about how the city can continue to promote biking as a legitimate form of transportation.  I can't claim that we solved all of Minneapolis' transit oriented urban planning challenges for the foreseeable future, but the basic agreement was that there is a tension between, on one hand, creating bikeways for new cyclists so that they are apart from traffic, and on the other, ensuring that drivers respect the road rights of all cyclists, be they on a path or in traffic.

It was an interesting conversation, and it led me to think seriously about getting more involved in grassroots organizations such as the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition and Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota.  I've been thinking a lot lately about trying to do a better job pursuing my passions from a personal standpoint, especially as I think more closely what those passions are from a professional one.  As the title and focus of this blog would suggest, bicycling in all its forms would fall in as one of those personal passions.