Old Habits Die Hard

It is strange how old habits die hard. We've been in Reno for over two weeks and I haven't been on my bike once. It is very depressing. We haven't been driving much either, but driving much more than we ever did in Miami. It's funny how the place you are in causes you to revert to old habits.

I started this post shortly after we arrived in Reno, but I put it off because I wanted to finish posting about the Arizona ride, then when I finished the Arizona ride I became excited about the wild woman idea and wanted to start posting in that direction, so this post was pushed back even further. I started thinking about this post again the other day when Dan and I went for a bike ride at the ranch, I decided now would be a good time to finish it.

We have now been back in northern Nevada for over three months and I have only been on my bike a handful of times. For the most part, Reno is not a very bicycle friendly town, sure over near the university the riding is okay and the city seems to be adding bike lanes when they resurface area roads which is great, but overall Reno is hard to bike in. It is sprawly and stores aren't typically located near residential areas. However, Reno is much more bike friendly than Miami. In Miami the drivers are rude, they don't slow down for pedestrians or each other, there are very few bike lanes and drivers are not very aware of anything other than their cell phones and cheese burgers.

Miami is commuter friendly in the sense that stores and services are located near residential areas. When we lived there we walked or rode our bikes to the grocery store, the laundromat, restaurants, pretty much everywhere. The drivers there were so rude that I hated driving, so I never did. At times it could be nerve wracking, but I rode my bike, walked or took the bus everywhere I went and Dan did the same. We drove our car maybe twice a month at the most. We rode our bikes to meet our friends at the beach for BBQs, we rode our bikes to work and we rode our bikes to play ultimate frisbee. We even bought the doggyride so we could take our dogs with us to places we were going to on our bikes. It was great.

I miss that, for some reason here in Reno it is so hard for me to ride my bike places, we live relatively far from most things we like to do and in the winter it's cold and hard to ride at night, but these are all excuses. It's so strange that it is so much harder for me to ride my bike here than it was in Miami. I'm hoping in the summer I'll be better, I'm going to try to be better. I really dislike driving our car. I hope that being at the ranch will help, we are planning on doing a few multi day trips once the roads dry out. I'm really looking forward to getting out on the bikes.

Here are some pictures from our ride at the ranch.

Our bikes and the doggy ride along Leonard Creek Road.

Dan, Dusty and the Doggyride on the Desert.

Dusty, taking in the view.

View of Pinto Mountain.