Enjoying my cycling

Before I get on to the story about cycling, I came across an interesting article in "Outside" magazine called The Definitive Superfood Ranking (http://www.outsideonline.com/2128816/definitive-superfood-ranking). I'm please to say that I love the top 15 out of 21 items mentioned, including;

• Blueberries
• Turmeric
• Salmon
• Red wine, and 
• Dark Chocolate (> 70% cacao)

Shame they didn't mention hot pepper sauce. 

The real purpose of looking at Outside magazine was to read their list of Top 10 Bike Towns (http://www.outsideonline.com/1899901/top-10-outside-bike-towns) from 2012, which incuded my new home town of Missoula at number 5, and a former home town of mine, Chico, California, at number 10. 

The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) maintains a list of Bicycle Friendly Communities (http://www.bikeleague.org/bfa/awards#community), in which Missoula was awarded the Gold level in 2016 (up from their Silver award the previous year). Even Helena got a Bronze award. 

As well as feeling safer on the (predominantly flat) roads here, I also took a minute to register my bike with the National Bike Registry (https://www.nationalbikeregistry.com). Since 1984, the National Bike Registry has been working with local law enforcement agencies to return stolen bikes to their rightful owners. A bike registered with NBR can be identified by police and returned to you instead of being sold at an auction. The city of Missoula also has their own program. The Missoula Bicycle / Pedestrian Office offers bicycle registration as a free online service (at http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/1992/Bike-Registration-Recovery). Registration makes it easier to identify and return stolen bicycles to their rightful owners, and (eerily) help identify people, especially children, in the event of a crash. 

If you could see me, in my bright yellow and reflective high visibility helmet and gear, and head and tail lamps (!!!!) you'd be astonished if anyone ever hits me. They certainly wouldn't be able to say that they didn't see me! I'll post a photo soon. 

At this point I have to say Thank You to Sandy (and Debbie) for the bike that I have (an older model Diamondback Sorrento recreational mountain bike - http://www.diamondback.com/shop/bikes/mountain/sport/recreational/sorrento-27-5), and for the expensive tune-up that it had a few years ago. Yes, the bike hung/sat idle for a couple of years or more, but it gets used a lot these days, and it's performing like a champion. I'm adding a Topeak Explorer rack (https://www.topeak.com/global/en/products/mtb-&-700c-touring-racks/916-uni-explorer-(non-disc)) with trunk bag to the back, so that I can carry more "stuff" safely.