Bicycle Accessible

 They don't just rhyme. They compliment each other. In the fall of 2015, I rode my longest bike tour down to Charleston, South Carolina and back with a detour via just shy of Pittsburg. I was stringing together visits with friends who'd either moved south or whom I hadn't seen in possibly a decade. I'd travelled many of those area in the past, but on a bike, I was impressed by the frequency of passing-conversations I had. The bike made me accessible, and people talk to accessible people.

Yesterday, I rode to Greenfield, again. And again, I enjoyed my ride up and back, as well as the town itself in the middle, including some yummy vegan coleslaw from the Green Fields Coop! With my belly brewing marinated cabbage, I was rolling east out of downtown, when I saw an artist working on rather intricate sidewalk chalk art, so I pulled over to the curb, asking if I could take a picture. Correction, with the better view from stopped, I realized the chalk was paint, and the artist, Youme (pronounced as and sourced from the two pronouns), told me is was one of the town's series of installations from eight artists to acknowledge the local history of abolitionism.

Youme happily granted permission to photograph, including her at work, and then we chatted for about ten minutes, with me learning more about the town's contributions to ending the enslavement of human beings, and also a past resident's invention for the, hopefully cohabitation, not enslavement, of honey bees. Yup, I like Greenfield, and I really like that on a bike it was so natural for me stop and have an interaction with another human being!

On a side note, I opted to pull down my rescued Kabuki yesterday morning for somewhat quicker travel, giving up a little tire volume and a bit of carrying capacity. Lighter bikes are fun. I just opted to more frequently put a foot down at stops, instead of the sometimes excessively interesting aspect of turning the front wheel for a track stand on a bike with toe overlap. And yes, I arrived home with a few roadside finds stuffed into or hanging off various parts of the more streamlined bike.

Ok, admitted, I draped my hi-viz scores just for the photo-op.