Tour de Paso

I love our bicycles. Love. Love. Love them.

We bought them last week and, after our maiden voyage in Fresno, we've gone on two rides. Our original purpose was to use them instead of the car on any trip within three miles that does not require massive carting of goods. (For instance, we'd never use them for our grocery shopping trip.) We thought this would not only be good for the environment, but also good for our health.

On Sunday we needed to take a quick trip down to Wal Mart. I was hoping to find a basket and Chad wanted a seat cover. (He got a what he wanted, but, believe it or not, the only basket available was a little white one with pink flowers. Um...no.) The one thing that really makes Paso un-bike friendly is the rolling hills. If you're not in great shape, don't even attempt to ride down Creston to the downtown area. Distance-wise it's probably only about 3 miles from our house, but it's down a steep hill. A very steep hill. To get to Wal Mart, you have to go down this same hill. We looked into paths and realized that if we cut across by Centennial Park, we'd only have a "small" hill on the way there and, more importantly, a "small" hill on the way home.

It took us 9 minutes to bike to Wal Mart. It took us 20 to get home. My legs were killing me. I had to hop off twice and walk. I told Chad that my goal is to be able to bike both ways, no problem.

Today, Chad rode to work. After dinner, he mentioned that he needed to go to Vons to pick up a couple things. We all donned our helmets, loaded up Joseph, and rode our bikes to the store. (One tiny hill that I was able to ride up.) We worked off a bit (a very small bit) of our dinner and got to go out and about as a family.

I love, love, love our bicycles.