We’re having a heat wave. Temperatures here made it into the 50′s this week. So exciting for February. We celebrated by taking off about 6 layers of clothing (don’t worry, that still left about 3) and then went for a bike ride.

We’ve been missing biking. In Seattle, we biked everywhere. It was our primary mode of transportation around town. Here, we don’t have a town to bike around, and our property is not so big that it requires a bike to tour. But the town of Lewis, which by having a library and post office has become our new mecca, is about 6 miles away. Perfect for biking to and from.

Out here we don’t have to deal with heavy city traffic. For most people this would be a good thing. Unfortunately, we both loved, really and truly loved, the adrenaline rush and fast pace of biking with lots of cars in the city. Ah well. Biking in the country has it’s own excitements. Namely, gravel. Or, after a few days warm enough to melt, mud.

It’s like swimming in a drag suit. Or running into strong wind. Or biking with flat tires. Except bumpier, and harder to stop. Apparently, ‘gravel grinding’ is catching on in the cycling world. So maybe even if my quads don’t like it yet, my ego can. That’s right, we’ve left our metropolitan lives behind, but we can still be on the cutting edge of the hipster bike crowd.

Our neighbors (who pass us in their pickups with their trailers full of cows) wave like we’re no big deal. I love them for it.

(P.S. If you have any tips on de-mudding a bike you’re willing to share, please do.)