Grocery shopping at its finest! The check out lady asked me if I was homeless after she found out I was cycling home with my groceries. It amused me in the moment, but in reality, its a pretty darn sad fact that so few people cycle here in the States, so incredibly few that everyone else assumes that you do it simply because you have no other options. I am proud to commute by bike; not because I’m desperate, but because I can.
I do not currently live in a bike friendly town like where I grew up in Eugene, or Oregon’s most famous cycling city, Portland. Here in Astoria, there are no bike racks outside of stores, and it rains pretty much everyday for eight months of the year. Never the less, I choose everyday to ride instead of drive for economic, health, and environmental reasons, never mind the fact that it simply makes me happier. There are many benefits to commuting by bike, and I hope that someday our country starts to catch on, but until then, I’ll proudly be the “homeless” person at the grocery store buying a weeks worth of groceries and a whole bag of toilet paper.