Bicycling With Family And Friends...

One activity I enjoy doing to get some exercise is cycling.  It is low impact and not so hard on my body. I love the camaraderie and being outdoors!  I sometimes ride with my daughter (Ashley), my husband (Dennis), or with friends.

Ashley and I have been riding two nights a week on a couple different trails in the Tulsa/Broken Arrow areas for the past few months.

We are getting ready to head out for our evening ride.

As we were leaving the neighborhood we looked at each other about the same time... I commented, "man, you can feel the heat from the pavement!"  She said, "that is exactly what I was thinking!"  It was 109 degrees that day!  Whew!

This is the trail we ride most often.

Parts of the trail is shady, so it gives us some relief from the sun on those scorching hot days.  I usually look at the temperature before we start and they have varied -- 99, 103, 106, 109, 97 101, etc; and it even reached 111 degrees one day when we started pedaling.  I am certainly looking forward to the cooler temps that just arrived today as I post this blog!

We take plenty of water and just hit the trail rolling!

Here we ride alongside a main road...

The trails just seem to wind and curve throughout the trees and hills.  We cross several little bridges...

and have underpasses to avoid many of the streets, but sometimes we do have to cross major streets.  You can see our trail goes under the road here...

We were sad when we saw this sign go up!

I assume they are closing the trail for repaving or such, but I don't really know for sure.  Hopefully, it won't be closed for long!  The trails are well maintained and are used by many people riding or walking; we always see others on the trail each day we ride.

A connecting trail we enjoy is the "Creek-Turnpike Trail"... and I guess we'll be riding it more now!

We usually head west on it from Memorial Road.  Again, the trail provides some shady areas and is quite hilly in places, so we get a good workout.

One thing about it each day we ride, we usually get to see the beginning of the sunset.  Here is one along the trail.

Ashley heads under one of the overpasses...and over the bridge.

Dennis and I continue to ride one day a week with our regular bicycling group here in town.  We often ride from our local city to a nearby city, we then load our bikes onto a bike trailer or in a pickup; and after dinner we head back home.  We cycle one-way usually for a distance of 21-30 miles depending which city is our destination.

Recently, I ate at 3:30 before a ride at 5:30... uhhh, that is not enough time between in this extreme heat... was not pretty!  Needles to say I only got 17.5 miles in that day ...I was thankful for the sag wagon!

When our evenings start getting short on daylight, we will do what is called an "out and back" ride.  We will leave from a local restaurant, pedal out for a certain period of time and then back to the restaurant to eat before dark.

Dennis and I sometimes ride on Sunday mornings (before his golf game); he enjoys riding before it gets hot.  I also have a friend I have ridden some with in the mornings, when she is available.  It sounds like I ride bikes all the time, which is not true, but I do like to ride 3 days a week when possible.

So, if you ever want to join in on the group fun... tune up your bike, grab your helmet and water bottle, and come enjoy one of our beautiful sunsets!

Another ride...another sunset!