Bring on the Holidays!

On my ride home last night I was thoroughly enjoying the fact that I have a really good light. The river path lights need a tune up so there are several sections where it's pretty dark and a powerful light makes all the difference. In my case a good light means a pretty simple minewt light like this.

However, as I rolled into downtown the need for the light pretty much disappeared, because the rink on the river was lit up like the fourth of July.  There must have been a thousand people hanging out, 3 news trucks filming, Christmas tree in full decoration, and professional skaters were spinning around the rink like no body's business.

Not a bad way to wrap up the evening bike ride!  So on that note, I'm outta here for Turkey celebrations.  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and a good kick off for the holidays!

Renued enjoyment of the ride.

There is no denying that any activity you do every day becomes mundane.  Usually this probably means work or maybe some of the household chores that happen all the time.  For some people with a long commute (in a car) I imagine the drive is this way. 

I realized lately that even writing this blog can be that way some days.  And then I realized something even better.....even when writing about bike riding is a bit dull and uninspired....the bicycle ride itself never is!

There is always a variation of the route you haven't tried even if nothing "interesting" to write about happens.  It may not be notable or worth sharing with others, but the feeling of the cold air, drivers actually giving you a place on the road (yes, it happens), or hearing the rush of the river makes every trip fun.  You just notice more things when you aren't isolated behind metal and glass!

Today was no exception (in fact it was a banner day for new things), so here's what I saw.

The street sweeper was out cleaning up all the downed leaves.  No shocker here....but I never knew what they did when the bin filled up.  Apparently, it raises up on a scissor jack and then the whole bin dumps into a truck and he just keeps going.  Who knew.  Sorry, I missed the actual dumping...with my camera out of commission I'm struggling with a slow low resolution phone. 

And if one cool thing on a ride isn't enough.  Check out the life size nut cracker statue at the vintage clothing shop (and some early x-mas decorations).  I'm gonna have to stop and see if the arm actually moves the jaw.  If it does I'll attempt to not use it to crush a beer can!

For the tri-fecta of Monday morning entertainment.  The ice rink has been being built up over the last few days.  It now is sporting ice and I'm guessing will be open for Turkey day skating.  We finally managed to use it last year and it was really fun.  So get out and hit the rink....you'll have a blast.

Ok, so that's it for a Monday.  What did you see on your morning commute?  If it's just bumpers and consternation about how stupid the spaghetti bowl is, perhaps you need to try a new way to get to work!

Rink on the river coming soon and Christmas right about the corner.

Update: Tree lighting is tonight at 5pm followed by the opening of the rink...skating til 9pm.  If you donate clothing items to the Salvation Army your skate rentals are free!

The downtown plaza is making some changes.  The rink on the river is busy with workers and I bet it opens as soon as the temperatures drop a little.  I have to admit, I've only ever gawked at it as I rode by in the past.  This year I'm am actually going to go.  Note....I haven't ice skated in 10 years.  I will bring the camera because there will probably be carnage!

Oh, yeah.  If you're already bored with Thanksgiving (even though we haven't had it yet)....  The City of Reno has you covered!  The city Christmas tree is up and even partially decorated.  Let's see if they let us eat turkey before they light it up!

Rink on the River.

Late this week we saw another sign that winter weather is on it's way.  The rink on the river setup closed the bike trail for the morning....a closure that I'm more than happy to tolerate.  The city of Reno always seems to be hemming and hawing about whether they have the money for such things.  I'm assuming they've found an outside operator to risk any losses this year.  Either way, I think things like this are what makes Reno a great town....you can always take a ride and find something interesting to do!