Wow, so it had been a really long time since I have done any significant bicycling.  My good friend from high school, Margarita was in town for the weekend (as was my mom, but that is a story for another day).    We did lots of fun stuff this weekend, including beaching it up with Annie up at the lake,

gotta love the paradox of laying on the beach when there's still snow on the mountain

lots of delicious dinners out, laying by the pool at my mom’s hotel, pedicures (Margarita’s first!) and a lovely bike ride up to the University.  Margarita went to UNLV and had never been up here.  So among her weekend of firsts, she wanted to see the beautiful campus of my alma mater.

from the north end, up by the knowledge center

So, Margarita hadn’t been on a bike since middle school!  That’s almost as long as it was for me.  But she was very brave and wanted to ride to UNR.  It was a beautiful, quiet Saturday ride through downtown Reno.  We rode around the campus for a bit and then back down.  We stopped at the River Walk and then to home for some R&R (this was where the pedicures and poolside relaxing came in).

i had no idea i was in this photo, but isn't the river pretty?!

I have to say, it is feeling pretty good to feel like I know what the hell I’m doing when I’m on that “little red bike with a basket.”**  And at this point, I’m just trying to spread the love.  Love of cycling, that is.  You just can not beat that feeling of riding in to work and not needing coffee.

**that is the top search term for finding my blog–how cool is that?!

So, we never ended up going for our Sunday ride.  I know, we suck.  Not sure how but Sunday screamed by so fast even though we barely did anything.  Had Sunday brunch at Voila! with my dad and his new girlfriend.  And you know how much I heart Voila!

my faja and his girlfriend, karen

Oh right, and Brad graduated from UNR on Saturday, which was nice.  It’s graduation, y’know.  REALLY hot day, forever long ceremony.  It was crazy how hot it was this weekend, actually!  Luckily we were in the shade, but it was way too hot for May.  I’m glad it’s back to 83 today   Anyway, he just happened to be like 10th from the last person called.  Out of almost 2,000 people.  We barbecued, drank beer, got a little sunburned in the backyard.  Good times.

So anyway, for some reason, we just did not make it out to ride our bikes.  We did however make it to the hardware store to buy supplies for my new planter box (!!)  We are very excited to start growing stuff   Brad figures we’ll start with some herbs and then plant some onions, garlic, shallots, etc. in the fall.

My dad had my car Monday morning so I was forced to ride to work.  Which is definitely a good thing because I am confident I would not have done so otherwise.  Definitely also contributed to my riding this morning as well.  Today, I VOLUNTARILY went a different way which involved two very large hills.  Okay, not “very large” but pretty big for me.  In the morning.  Before food.  And coffee.  Go me.

Dad and Karen come back from Calif. tonight, so probably no ride, but hopefully we’ll do our “long” ride one day soon.    Brad, if you are reading this, note the sad face!  Kidding!

So, as previously stated, I have today off because of all the graduation hooplah, etc.  However, I found out yesterday that Ch. 2 was thinking about covering the Olsen office since HALF of our staff was planning to bike to work (okay, so there are only eight of us).  Pretty cool, right?  So I was totally bummed that I wouldn’t be biking to work.  But since I inspired so many to ride to work (that’s right, I did) they thought I should show up if I could and share in the local news glory.  So, being that I had been up since 4:30 a.m. (boyfriend defended thesis today, stress + lack of sleep = no bueno … long story) I figured I may as well go.  Plus, my good friend Jen, who lives a few blocks away, was nervous about doing it by herself.  And seeing that I am now a pro, I wanted to help. 

To my dismay, Ch. 2 never showed up.  It was a bummer, but I was glad to have gotten to ride for a bit, because otherwise I don’t think I’d have had the chance today.  Although, if I really wanted to, I suppose I could be riding now instead of writing this blog while my poor sleep-deprived boyfriend naps …

ANYWAY, we decided we’d take it upon ourselves to get Olsen Bike to Work Day covered.  So we took our own picture to send around.

Logo inclusion and everything.

We are such fun people.  Ended up hanging around for a bit just to be sure Ch. 2 wasn’t coming, and then headed home to watch last night’s Grey’s.  Boyfriend and I have a great ride scheduled for Sunday (because that’ll be the first time we can cause of the graduation celebration).  We’re thinking about doing the trail along the river that goes all the way out to Vista Blvd.  Nearly everyone I talk to says it’s a great one.  Have been scoping out mapmyride.com for some potential future rides, too.  Will be sure to document!!

So tomorrow, Friday, May 15, is Nevada Bike to Work Day.  And I think the whole week is actually considered Nevada Bike to Work Week.  I am not totally sure.  Either way, I was pretty bummed that I wasn’t going to be able to bike to work on Friday.  My dad will be in town and I’m not going to work!  Please do not confuse this with my being bummed about my dad being in town and/or taking a day off!  But I am totally and genuinely bummed about not getting to participate in Bike to Work Day.

As stated in my previous entry, I resolved to bike to work the entire week, save Friday.  And here we are on Thursday and I did it!  Even today, which is a half-day.  I’m not gonna lie, I am pretty darn impressed with myself.  Not that it’s a tough or long ride.  It’s relatively short and easy.

As stated in another previous entry:

I definitely need to be on my bike a lot more to have better stories to tell.  Now, the learning part is mostly taken care of.  I can ride the bike.  Now I need to start experiencing life from my bike.

Yes, I just block-quoted my own blog post.

Hopefully after Brad is done with school we can go on some more after-work rides.  I really want to try the trail along the river that goes all the way to Vista.  Anyway, I suppose that’s it for now … yay for a fun weekend of graduating, BBQing, family visiting and hopefully a little bike riding!

Hooray!  Brad and I both vowed to not drive at all yesterday, and we rode our bikes everywhere we went!  It was my first day riding to work.  Brad came with me and we make a mini piedibus and he dropped me off at work on his way to school. 

After work, he came to pick me up and we rode to Bicycle Warehouse to pick up the basket I ordered (running to go take a picture):

my adorable wicker basket

We then rode to Sushi Pier 2 for some all you can eat.  We then had to ride home.  Ouchies.

Oh, I almost forgot to gush about our fabulous ride on Tuesday night!  Monday was super nice, but Tuesday was a good, long, hill-ish ride.

We rode down to Wingfield Park and then to Idlewild (which, by the way, is my new favorite park) from there.  We then rode up Hunter Lake to Plumb and home again.  I may have just learned to weeks ago to ride again, but I am feeling really comfortable!

I rode again to work this morning.  This time, by myself.  I think I did pretty well!  Will probably skip tomorrow because it’s supposed to be cold, but I think I could definitely ride to work three or so times a week.  I’m loving it!

I guess that’s all for now.

So, after another surprise boyfriendly visit (I love those, by the way–if you are reading this, boyfriend), I went home to Brad who was already preparing a picnic for us to take on our ride to Wingfield.  It took us a lot longer to prep than we expected, but we still got a decent ride in before dark.  (We also got to take a stroll through our neighbors’ new garden and man am I excited for all the stuff they’re growing!)

So, we finally started on our ride at around 6:30.  Wingfield Park is not even a mile and a half from my house, so that’s not really what scared me, but being on the road with cars on Arlington .. ick.  It ended up being pretty quiet so I did okay.  I think I am almost ready to ride to work soon!

So, we rode to Wingfield and had our little picnic on the grass.

Disclaimer: I was a little camera-happy so prepare yourself for lots of Becca-and-Brad pictures!

Brad, pretending to not notice I'm taking pictures of him.

We had an experimental home-made pasta salad.  We are so cute.  It’s almost disgusting.  Okay, it is.  We are totally that couple I used to hate.  I wanted to lay on the grass some more but Brad wasn’t really enjoying it as much as I was.

me, laying on the grass. brad, not amused.

brad hijacked my phone and caught one of me getting ready to go. good thing i was already smiling

Then we rode around the park a bit.  We were going to sit and have a beer at the Tap House, but it was too crowded, so we decided to just sit down by the river to enjoy our amazingly delicious dessert.

balsamic-honey strawberries with a whipped vanilla bean mascarpone topping. heaven.

No reason for putting this here, I just thought it was super cute.

And that was our evening.  We rode back just as the sun went down (loving that it’s light out til 8 these days!)  Can’t wait to do it again.