I have been tagged

Ya wanna know how I found out that I have been tagged by Jill from Juneau? Because I looked at my site meter this morning and wondered why my hits were about 3 times the normal volume for an entire day at 9 am. I only get these kinds of spikes when someone links to my blog. So I'm spending my lunch break answering these questions, because I really don't want to add Leprosy to my list of ailments...

If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be? This is hard, because I really only have one bike. Well, unless you count my beater winter commuter bike. I'm not really into the whole having ten bikes thing. My bike does everything I need it to. I think biking should be more about the riding than the bikes. Everyone gets so wrapped up in the gear. The only bike I am considering buying in the future is a winter bike. My bike doesn't do winter well. Or maybe if Brian would by a Pugsley or a Fatback, I could have the "Snow Ho".

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why? Oh man, if you read my blog at all you know that I like variety. Routine drives me crazy. And even when I take the same route to work everyday three miles, I start to go insane. I can't stand when people park their cars or their bikes in the same spot every day. So I'm going to have to say that I would make the ride straight to hell because that is what it would feel like for me to ride the same route every day and I might as well just get it over with. Um, my second choice would be the Crescent Lake Trail.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to to do for the rest of her / his life? Someone who wants to torture me on a Wednesday morning.

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded? No I do not ride both. In the summer that I was 10 years old, and it was time to move up to Junior High the following Septemeber, I was faced with a decision that I will never forget. All of my friends were trading in their "dirt bikes" for 10 speeds. No, not the motorized kind of dirt bike, but the little mountain like bikes that we road before their were mountain bikes. I remember my parents told me it was time to get a new bike, because I was outgrowing my old one. And frankly the Strawberry Shortcake basket was getting in the way. The question was "Do you want to upgrade to a 10 speed?" Upgrade? I didn't consider that an upgrade. On a dirt bike I could go anywhere. I could ride on the road to my friends house or to get ice cream. I could cut through a side trail in the woods to get to school. I could go into the trees behind the JCC and take my bike off some sweet jumps. I watched my friends on their 10 speeds deal with the restrictions of the road. Even a tall curb had become a challenge for them. So the answer was no. I didn't want an upgrade. And so my parents bought me "The Predator". I remember riding it to the playground for the first time. All the boys were OOOing and Ahhing while the girls turned their noses up at my new beautiful-baby-blue-with-white-wheels-go-anywhere-dirt-bike. The best decision I ever made. I'm not narrow-minded, just haven't felt the need for one yet.

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent. If I wanted to lay down, I would take a nap on the couch. It seems very awkward to me, but hey, to each is own.

Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss? No, I haven't. I have definitely thought about it, but I'm not a swimmer. Don't get me wrong, I love to swim, but I like to swim underwater and in the ocean and going off diving boards and playing Marco Polo. Doing laps back and forth in a pool is not for me. In Alaska their are also no outdoor pools. So that would be doing laps in an indoor pool, ick! I never did get that breathing thing down either. Maybe that is because I don't have the discipline. :) Jill described a triathlon that involved skiing instead of swimming. If I could find one of those I would do it. Or even paddling.

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why? Ice Cream is my first love. That's all I have to say.

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it. My question is... If you could ride your bike on any planet in the Solar System, which would it be and why? Well I guess I would say Mars. Doesn't Mars have the highest mountain in the Solar System? Yeah, I would ride on Mars and climb that mountain on my bike. It's like three times the size of Everest.

You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do? I agree with Jill, there is no shortage of these encounters in Alaska, and luckily the bear is either far away up on a hill watching me in which case I do nothing, or already running away because he heard me coming. Now if the bear was coming at me, the first thing I would need to do is change my chamois.

Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.

Here goes...

Tim
Sock Monkey
Alaska Bike Girl