Biking Beginnings

My mom used to train for triathlons, then I came along.... but she didn't use that as an excuse to quit. When she was pregnant with me, I replaced her drag suit in the pool and after I was born I was just some added weight to the back of her bike or on top of her kick board.

She likes to tell the story of my first time riding a bike. We were still in the apartments out in Flint and we picked up an old bike someone was throwing out. I was so excited, riding it around and around. My mom was across the courtyard with the camera filming me, when I went to turn, but turned the wrong way and disappeared down some cement steps.

I just loved bikes, my cousins and I used to decorate them for the 4th of July parade and I liked to ride mine down the hill at my dads. Then we had a day during cross country camp were we mountain biked through trails and I feel in love and bought one of my own. I hated riding the bus and would always beg my mom to let me ride to school, she never let me until high school.

Once a friend and I got lost and ended up riding forty or so miles through Flushing, downtown Flint, and finally back into creek. I couldn't believe we covered all that distance on bikes! For my attention span that was for-ev-or in a car.

Then then triathlons came along in college and I bought my first road bike and my addiction grew. I loved how easily the skinny tires flew down the pavement and the feeling of clip less pedals.

I got to be friends with a few of the guys at the bike shop and they would always take me out to the trails or for longer road rides. But Up North, where I live now, I have a hard time finding people to ride with so I started doing trips on my own. Started with Mackinaw to Grand Lake, then Mackinaw to Marquette, and just recently Marquette home. The feeling of knowing I powered every single inch of travel is so rewarding. It also feels good to know I saved about one hundred dollars riding home from school rather than driving, enough to pay for a bridesmaid dress in my big sister's wedding.

Each trip leaves me wanting more. "Well now that wasn't so bad Grace, what's next?" says my mind. Traveling is one of the greatest teachers. Our mind lives in a world of what we know, or think we know. However, we live in a world that is filled with things we don't know, and things we don't know we don't know and the only way we will ever know them, is to let ourselves go. Forrest Gump's mamma was right, life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. But why would you stick with the box of chocolates when the chocolate factory is next door and you have a golden ticket?