Journal of Healthy Living

Exploring Our Town By Bike

Last week, my wife and I bought brand new Schwinn Midtown bicycles from Costco. Since then, we’ve been riding around town without a care in the world! Actually, I’ve been doing a lot of riding during the day as a way to unwind and relax and it’s been such weather for it too here in Maryland.

One of the primary motivations for the bike was to introduce more exercise into my day and reduce my carbon footprint. In general, my daily travels consist of maybe a visit to the post office and a visit to the gym. For each, the drive is less than three miles in what amounts to psuedo-city driving (both have about four traffic lights). The city I live in happens to be very pedestrian and bike friendly, with a plethora of paths in between developments.

Just today, I took a twenty minute (maybe it was thirty minutes, I can’t really tell) bike ride over to the post office where I checked my PO Box. I tossed what little mail I did have into my pack and started on my way back. About halfway, I saw a path that led in a direction I thought was the local lake. I decided to go on a little exploratory adventure and started down the path. Within minutes I was onto the lake and familiar territory, all because I was willing to try it out on bike. Had I been on foot, I would’ve just taken the regular route because I didn’t want to get myself lost. On a bike, I could easily turn around and be back where I started within minutes.

This also represents a practically free (on a marginal basis) and healthy way to spend more time with my wife doing something we both enjoy, being outdoors. We can ride around our little down, get some exercise, and relax.