In the Fall 1998 I started riding my bike (an old Schwinn Collegiate that I bought to commute to my job at the Bloomington Voice/Independent). After much cogitation, I bought a Trek 700 in July of 1999. A hybrid bike, it offered me the ability to hit the road for a long ride around Lake Monroe, but also served to navigate the potholes of Bloomington. I rode it through December of 1999, and I am sure it was a major contributing factor to a neck spasm, causing pain and numbness down my neck and back. As I ride to lower my blood pressure, I could not give up riding. Through the generous help of good friend Kevin Atkins, I was able to start riding an old (but well maintained) Rans Nimbus.

I try to enjoy short trips (15-20 mi.) each day, and once a week a longer journey (40+ mi.), usually around Lake Monroe to the south, or around Lake Lemon to the north. I logged 4500 miles in 2001, but due to an increased work load, made just 3800 in 2002. I replaced the back cassette and chain last spring, which improved the over all performance by 20 percent. I have been having trouble in the recent snow with freezing cables, but no falls as yet!

While riding my mind is occupied with observing the plants and wildlife here in southern Indiana. In a single week I've seen a kingfishers, hoot owls bluebirds, hawks and eagles. I've coasted past fawns standing innocently in the road, and saw my first red fox crossing Lanham Ridge Road (and I have seen 3 more since, one the more reate gray fox during a threshing session at the Friends Meetinghouse). On March 8, 2003 while riding around Lake Monroe, I saw first a flock of sandhill cranes, then a group of very talkative red-tailed hawks, and on Chapel Hill road I startled by 4 wild turkeys, who flew right past me. On the botanical side, I've found wild bergamot, bellflower, fire pink, and pawpaw. I've eaten dandelion, watercress, mulberries, apples, black raspberries, blackberries, may apples, sumac, rosehips, persimmons, and mushrooms, including a specimen of Agaricus Campestris, I found right on the IU campus!

My concern about the PCB pollution here led me to study the watersheds and the karst typography of Bloomington, and I have developed an interest in knowing where I am in relation to waterflow, what creek or sinkhole takes the water I see on my rides. We have some great hills here, dropping in and out of the creeks that feed the two forks of the White River in the Norman Uplands/Mitchell Plain area where Bloomington is located.