I was very excited yesterday to take my first shopping trip by bike! Mostly I wanted to do a trial run and see if I could find places to lock the bike up, which you never seem to notice when you’re by car.
First up was a run to JoAnn Fabrics in search of the little plastic safety eyes for the amigurumi animals I’ve been crocheting. And lo and behold, right there at the corner where the fabric store is one of those heavy duty metal racks (I didn’t have my camera with me so I found this photo at bikeparking.com:
In all the years I’ve been going there, I had never noticed it until I rode into the parking lot yesterday. Duh. I wasn’t sure how the stores would like me wandering around with the panniers from the bike, so I only brought one with me. I figured if they don’t mind backpacks and purses, they couldn’t really object to the pannier. I worry too much, nobody even noticed. :::shrug::: And success! They carried the little safety eyes. Not a huge selection, but they had a few sizes (notably the one I wanted) which saved me from having to order them over the net. I then wished I’d brought the other pannier, they had a bunch of cute Halloween stuff on sale but I knew I wouldn’t have room for it all so I’ll have to go back. They’re already trotting out the Christmas stuff so they’re trying to get rid of the Halloween stuff… yikes.
Next stop was Target. I knew they had one of the regular old bike racks, which I have discovered I don’t really like. You can only lock one wheel to this style, and with the front wheel being the quick-release style, I needed both my heavy chain lock and the U-lock. I used the side of the rack which allowed me to secure both wheels to the rack. Again, no one in Target batted an eyelash at me with my pannier. I had that thing PACKED when Ieft, even a 12-can box of cat food. I also had to pick up bathroom tissue, and managed to carry the 12-roll pack home on the handlebars (double-bagged). So yay! At least I got a little exercise and left the car at home for one trip.
Later I rode over to visit my son and his daughter. They live 3 miles away, so it’s only a 15-minute ride with good bike lanes most of the way. It was such a gorgeous day to be out on the bike. I’d like to try doing my weekly grocery shopping by bike, but I usually get way more than will fit in my panniers. I may have to get those wire basket style shopping racks that hold a regular paper grocery bag.
The Wandering Mind 
Good for you. I’ve only dared leave my bike outside a shop once (double-locked of course). Bike theft where I live is a national hobby – not surprising, I suppose, in a country where the number of bikes exceeds the number of people. But irritating.
Yeah, I double-locked my baby, too. It kind of baffles me that bike theft is such a huge problem. I mean, is there really that much money to be made in fencing stolen bikes, or parts? I just don’t get it.
Nice going, didge! 142 1/2 miles is impressive by any standard, plus you put in more than a few miles over the weekends. You must have mad hot legs!
We had a few cat-food-loving skunks around here as well (they must have similar dietary taste.) I feel bad for the cats AND the skunks, but there’s no way of explaining that to the little stinkers, and racoons wreak havoc with my trash cans besides spreading rabies, so I had to stop feeding everybody but my indoor kitty.
Haha! Well, you’d think so (about the legs) but I haven’t lost an ounce with all this. It’s a little irritating, frankly.
It’s funny, the raccoons don’t get into our trash cans here. I have no explanation for it. I did ask the vet about the rabies and she said it’s not really endemic to the raccoons in this area so I didn’t have to worry about the cats tangling with one and getting infected. Definitely a concern since I have at least one living in my backyard. I definitely don’t want to encourage the skunks to come around for food (for obvious reasons) and I’m afraid they may be living in the backyard as well. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom back there. All I lack is a camera crew 😉
hahaha…..you should lash the t.p. to your rack for all behind you to see. Oh man, I cant wait to go shopping next!! I’m gonna pick up a big old multi pack of tp.
Nice job.
Oh man! I wish I’d thought of that, it would have been SOOOO much easier! I’m putting bungee cords on my shopping list! 😉