Winter Triking three ways, plus a visit

• So, it was up to twenty mph winds today, and got down to 18 degrees. I finally got some winter triking clothes figured out so that I could go to the grocery store. Long socks, leggings, jeans. T-shirt, sweater, sweat shirt, jacket. The ever important good gloves, and a hat that fits under my helmet. My cheeks and nose were still cold, and it was slow going against that wind (which blew my trike in a semi circle when I was off it to fill in a deposit slip at the drive-through machine at the bank, and blew the parsley out of my shopping bag when I left it on my steps to go lock up the trike), but it was exhilerating, too. Okay, here comes winter. I can do it.



• I see the folks from Pedal People a lot. Often, we're some of the few winter bikers out, only they're pulling trailers full of trash cans as part of their hauling and delivery service. (I just saw on their website that they're starting a pre-order food coop, too.) On a cold day recently, someone who I recognize from the website as Ruthy pedalled up beside me on the bike path and started chatting about the advantages of trikes versus bikes with trailers. She said that it always makes her happy to see me out on my trike, and I feel the same about them. Plus, they put up a pay phone and a bench and a tire pump people can use outside their yard, and they have a lending library. It's all pretty sweet.
  
  If you scroll down their photo page, they've got a good shot of the bike path in winter.



• I found out from nunofthat, who just put up a great (locked) post about winter biking, that Chicago has a bike station, where people can bike to work, park their bikes securely, take showers, leave their stuff in lockers and go about their days. Love that.



• A friend was visiting last week. This was gorgeous. We ate sweet squash in oatmeal most mornings, and did many wonderful things, including a tour of Jonathan Edwards sites I'd never been to before: an eighteenth century church; his birthplace and the graves of his parents in an excellent cemetery with many terrific carvings of angels, plus one of the country's oldest post offices, which was a store in his time; and the town where he preached his most famous sermon. We took the old highway along the river.