Free Spirit

First: I’m home in Portland! Sitting on my cushy couch, watching a large TV with a fluffy dog at my feet. It’s lovely.

Second: This blog entry. So, because I’m a ridiculous person, the first thing I did on my first morning off was clean my bike. That’s right. I love that thing. It’s a Sears & Roebuck Free Spirit, circa the 1970’s (best I can tell on the internet). When I was heading out to school freshman year I didn’t want to bring my nice bike, in case it would get stolen or damaged or whatnot, so I started looking for a “beater” bike to bring with me instead. When I found this one on Craigslist, it was love at first sight. My dad and I drove to a house in Portland, test drove it down the street (a massive hill. Not ideal), left the $40 under the door as instructed and took it home. It was really a steal, a similar bike was listed shortly thereafter for over a hundred dollars.

We’ve been on some great adventures since then. Like hiking the Y. Yes, you read that right. It is not something I would recommend. Back during my freshman year when I didn’t have a car at school, my friend Corinne Fletcher and I wanted to hike the Y and thought it would be a good idea to ride our bikes up to the starting point to get there faster. Not so. The hill was way too steep, so we ended up having to walk them and this bike is like solid steel. Long story somewhat short, pushing the bikes to the starting point was harder than hiking the actual mountain. When we got to the beginning there were no bike racks. I wonder why. Although, it was pretty nice to ride the bikes down the mountain when we were done.

But this is all off track. The timeliness of this story (I’m always asking my reporters and people giving me press releases why I should care about their story ideas now) is that I cleaned my bike yesterday, largely to put some stuff on it to protect it from rust. My fingers froze off, but it was worth it. If you had a bike this awesome you would want to take care of it too! I mean, just look at these stickers.

And that’s not all! It also has a rack on the back. I’ve used it for many things. When I didn’t have my car the first two years at school, I became an expert at loading all of my groceries on it. I’ve transported gallons of milk, juice, large pizzas, balloons, everything. One time someone legitimately pointed and laughed at me when I had a large thing of toilet paper bungy corded on the back. I didn’t know people really did that. I’m sure they were just jealous.

And I got a sweet bell for it in London at Octopus, one of my favorite stores in the world. I may ring it every time I walk past it.

Now go love your bikes!