I hate cliches but sometimes, when things are tough, you can’t help but rely on a good line. When I was training for a marathon, I was given the advice to come up with a mantra to help me get through the tough bits. “I am the waves, I am the waves, I am the waves.” made me feel as if I glided along the roadway.

When I was accused of over training by others, they often gave me lines like “Too much of a good thing can be bad.” or “Everything in moderation.”

Later, when it turned out they were right, and I had to give up running, I told myself to take those lemons, and make lemonade.

Harold and I took up cycling as part of our overall exercise plans, but have come to enjoy it more than anything else. We rode often last year, and told ourselves that if we still loved it, we’d invest in better bikes this year.

After deliberating, we chose touring bikes, so we can carry all our gear for long distances and be self sufficient. We purchased two Novara Safari touring bikes from REI. The price was fantastic, especially when we used our 20% dividend coupons, we liked the looks, and feel, especially the butterfly handlebars and reviews of the bike were very favourable.

We have since been investing in cycling, and camping equipment, reading everything we can about what we need, where we want to go, how we want to do it all. The original plan was to ready ourselves for the STP – Seattle to Portland ride, which is a long ride for us. It’s two days, and 200 miles (322km in Canadian). The most we’d done last year was 50 miles (80km) in a day.

Unfortunately, I decided to register 4 days after they’d sold the last spot. Here I’d thought they’d never sell 10,000 spots 4 months early! Then I heard they sold out the RSVP – Seattle to Vancouver ride in 4 hours on January 1st! Guess I’ll know better next year. In the meantime, we’re waiting to see if any new spots come open, while still training. I’ve also found a number of other rides to keep us busy all summer long.

Summer is, after all, the best time for lemonade.