You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club. (Jack London)

I spent a couple decades of my adult life living in rural areas. I'm talking places where cattle outnumber people. It gave me a handy skill set for cycling in urban Miami during the covid-19 lockdown.

Rural living is quiet because there is flat out nothing to do but things you think up on your own. As a cyclist, I joked that we had an abundance of scenic roads and double track to ride. Our problem was there were just no destinations. 

But the skill set rural life taught was more than just how to be self sufficient on long bicycle rides in the middle of nowhere. It's a mindset. Figuring out what you want. Figuring out how to get what you want. Figuring out how to amuse yourself.

So while I may have a lot of issues to deal with these days, cycling isn't one of them. Here in Miami I've got places to go and nifty things to see. And no cell phone dead zones. And physical distancing? Heck. People you can tell to back off. Cattle, snakes, and weird wild critters? Not so much.

Life is good. 

There are four kinds of Homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy. (Ambrose Bierce)

Everyone is getting a bit (ahem) irritable.

The covid-19 lockdown has left me without my running away from home on a bicycle trips. For my mental health, I need to give my solo rides a touch of novelty and adventure. (Nothing big, just a little touch will do.)

I ride 4 days a week. I ride with my husband Al as much as possible. He's a lot faster than me, and, while I really love that he willingly rides slow with me, it would be ridiculously selfish of me to expect him to do it all the time.

On solo rides I use GPS on my Garmin and/or phone to create novel routes. Where to ride? Well, remember I'm trying to have a little replacement therapy for my running away from home on my bicycle trips. I'm happiest when I'm chasing down a series of destinations. I started a list for Miami.

• Miami has 148 parks, gardens, recreation areas, and playgrounds. Sure they are closed right now, but they work as targets. I pick a few and create a route that strings them together. (And not all parks are surrounded by walls and gates. Just saying.)
• Miami has a lot of communities. So I create a route that goes through a bunch of them. Extra points for getting a photo of a sign marking the community. An alternative is picking a community or two to explore.
• I pick a historic site or two. The farther from home, the better.
• Architecture makes a great theme for a route. MiMo, for example, in the Upper East Side neighborhood (the area south of Miami Shores and east of Little Haiti.) I'm a big fan of brutalist architecture, and rides that highlight examples are particular fun for me.
• As you can see, I doubt I'll soon run short of themes for  future rides.

It's simple and easy. It keeps me distracted from the things I can't do until this virus thing is in our collective rear view mirror.

Bike rides aren't just exercise time. Bike rides are mental health adjustment time.

Midtown

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.' (Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Al and I go for bike rides four days a week. It used to be a convenient routine that kept us in shape. These days it's a mental health necessity. We're out of the condo. (Yeah!) We're soaking up some sunshine. (Yeah!) We're stretching our muscles. (Yeah!) We're seeing in the real world people. (Yeah!)

I headed out on our Easter Sunday ride feeling irritable, disjointed, and down-in-the-dumps. I was missing my friends. I was missing the stops for coffee on bike rides. I was missing seeing people without masks.

Then I chanced upon a family out on their bikes. Mom. Dad. A boy about 10 years old. And a little girl about 5 years old on a pink princess bike. The little girl had decorated her bike. And I mean decorated it. Flowers. Lots of ribbons and bows. Pinwheels. Her little bike basket was filled with Easter basket cellophane grass and big candy eggs. Something that might have been a pink stuffed bunny was tied to the back of her bike seat. I mean, the little princess bike absolutely twinkled. It was magical.

Seeing that little girl made me smile. My mood picked up. Things weren't so bad after all.

Happier times wait ahead.

Until you walk a mile in another man's moccasins you can't imagine the smell. (Robert Byrne)

Technology has been the silver lining in the pandemic's stay-at-home thing. It's let me spend my time with people who live far from my home in Miami.

I have two friends that I've known since the 80s when we worked together. About a dozen years ago we discovered our mutual interest in bicycles, and we began chatting online regularly. We are three women in our 70s. I live in a highrise in Miami. One friend lives on a farm in south Georgia, and the other lives in a town in rural north Florida. We all love solo rides. We all love to travel on our bikes.

Because they live in rural areas, it's a lot easier for them to physically distance themselves on their bike rides. Still, they have had to negotiate some compromises with their families.

• Pavement riding only so someone can drive out for them and their bike if there is a serious problem.
• They have to leave a route and expected return time at home (because there are areas where cell phones are iffy should there be a problem.)
• And no overnight trips. (No particular reason, it seems. Apparently it just drives family crazy to have grandma wild camping somewhere during the pandemic. My friends think it is annoying and silly but quaint and sweet, nonetheless.)

They think my rides are pretty unhampered by the pandemic. I try to explain the problems with urban riding, but they think my issues with scooters and finding toilet facilities are highly amusing.

We share photos of stuff from our rides. They have scenic landscapes and wonderful old homes. I  share photos of Miami stuff. Skyline city views. Peacocks. Public art. Biscayne Bay. The reaction of these friends to things I usually dismiss as mundane and commonplace affected me in a way I hadn't expected.

To my surprise, I discovered my world was littered with little treasures. I realized I could be a bicycle tourist right here at home. No travel required. Just a change in viewpoint.

One of the many peacocks I pass on rides around Miami.

A bit of public art in a tiny park between a traffic circle and a parking lot.

The secret to a long marriage is to stay gone. (Dolly Parton)

Al and I have been together for over a half a century. Despite that, the covid-19 stay-home situation has been a bit of a challenge. Everybody needs more space than current conditions allow if they hope to emerge with sanity intact.

There is a lot to be said for a regular bicycle ride. Exercise is a stress reliever. But a bike ride that takes you out of a tiny living space and into the fresh air and sunshine for a few hours, that is a precious stress reliever.

Physical distancing is something that the people in my neighborhood are fairly conscientious about. Actually, it can be a bit spooky. We tend to avoid eye contact. We walk at the edges of the sidewalks and paths. Even when walking dogs, people take great pains to follow physical distancing rules. Runners keep their distance as they pass you, avoiding the "cough zone." It is easy to see that these things are being done automatically and unconsciously. Makes you feel like an extra in a science fiction movie.

Since traffic has virtually evaporated in many areas of the city, I am enjoying my solo bicycle rides. My favorite area this week was Wynwood. Wynwood is north of where I live, on the other side of the Miami River and Downtown Miami. Murals cover every paintable surface of the district. I wandered up and down the streets. I took a lot of photographs. Stores, galleries, bars, and clubs were closed. (Some coffee shops/cafes had window service open.) I pedaled around the surrounding neighborhoods. I literally had the place to myself. There's a lot of new construction going on in area, and there were construction guys and trucks about. There were a fair amount of homeless people camped out in quiet corners. Cars were minimal away from major streets.

Pedaling home I wandered around Downtown Miami, crossed the river back to Brickell, and then did some loops locally to finish the miles for my ride. By the time I was home my legs were happy, and I was ready to accept confinement once more.

What a difference a ride makes.

Lots of physical distancing here...

A colorful artwork on a temporary wall around a construction site.

A piece I like near Wynwood Walls.

Miami Urban Cycling During the Corona Virus Crisis

Like everyone that rides a bicycle in a city, I used to bitch about traffic. Before moving to Miami, I lived in rural areas for a lot of years. It took a while for me to get used to Miami traffic. But with the corona virus crisis, traffic volume has dropped. A lot.

While people need to stay at home, we can get out to go to the grocery or pharmacy, to walk the dog, or to go for a run or a bike ride. I'm continuing to ride my bike. Mostly by myself. Since I can get lost a half mile from home, I rely on my GPS gadgets and routes programmed into them.

At first it was great. Fewer cars really changed the mood of urban riding. But it didn't take long to realize there were some real challenges, too. No problem if you were just taking a short pedal around the neighborhood. But for a longer ride in an urban area you need places for water and bathroom breaks. (Like there aren't groves and isolated roads in Miami like in rural areas of Florida.) My breaks along my old routes were mainly at parks, marinas, and recreational facilities. Now those are posted and padlocked.

So I'm developing new routes. Ones that rely mainly on the ubiquitous Publix grocery stores for breaks. Now I could create the routes on a site like Ride with GPS, but I'm just too lazy for that method. I use Google maps on my phone to create a Publix to Publix route. Then I use the phone for GPS guidance as I ride. I wander about rather than strictly following the Google route which of course, adjusts for my detours. Then at the end of the ride if I liked the route, I save my Garmin ride data on my Garmin as a course and give it a name. Easy peasy.

I'm going to have a chance to explore parts of Miami I used to avoid because of traffic. One new thing for me, though, is that I have to remember to carry a lock or two for stops. (While I saw one cyclist pushing his bike into a Publix, I'm not planning to try that myself.)

I'm looking forward to finding out what I can see on these rides. Yesterday I wanted a not too long ride, so I started out along the Miami River with plans to head up to Wynwood to look at the murals. Instead I found myself meandering around West Flagler, then Little Havana, and then the Gables, before finally turning toward home.

There are a lot of really cool neighborhoods in Miami. I think I'll spend the next few weeks being a bicycle tourist in my own city. Should be fun. 

You can only be young once. But you can always be immature. (Dave Barry)

They say the best things come in small packages. I sure hope so. Because my big new thing for the year ahead is a little folding bike, a Brompton.

I've been thinking about this since last summer. I decided I wanted an all around errand bike for use in Miami. I use Metrorail a lot. When I take a bike, I can never find suitable bike racks at stores and offices. A Brompton handles these situations. (It even has a "shopping cart" mode!) I also wanted a travel/touring bike that would let me easily hop on trains and buses. A Brompton travels like a pro. A Brompton opens up a lot of territory for my little "running away from home on a bicycle" adventures.

I decided on a Brompton for two reasons. First, a Brompton folds faster, easier, and more compactly than other folders. Second, and a big plus for me, Brompton has a line of bike bags designed just for their bikes. Something for every purpose from commuting to touring.

Since my husband no longer shares my enthusiasm for bicycle touring, I just go solo. Some people think solo touring would be lonely or boring, but it's not.  Bicycle touring's allure is its freedom. You keep your own schedule. It's liberating. When you tour solo, there is no negotiating with your traveling companion! You make stops when you feel like it, eating or having coffee when you want. You can chat with people or enjoy solitude. And you never have to apologize for spending too much time taking photos, wandering down a back road, or changing your plans on a whim. And when you are riding a little folding bicycle like a Brompton, people go out of their way to make your aquaintaince and chat with you!

The covid-19 pandemic has complicated things, to say the least. The bike and accessories have been ordered, but they will get here when they get here. And, like everybody else, I'm doing the social distancing thing. In other words, taking it one day at a time. Which means I have time on my hands to daydream about trips I want to take on my Brompton when it finally gets here and the pandemic thing cools down.

Watch this space.