Day 97 - Lexington to Arlington and back - Final Riding Day

Wednesday May 29, Biked 7 miles. Total mileage by end of day: 5004. 

Cool and cloudy.

Ok, now I'm finally wrapping up my last daily SOS ride post well after I finished my ride and I'm doing it from Finland. Right after my ride I was very busy attending my 35th college reunion then moving my son from UCLA to our house and then to Finland, which is why this post is happening from Helsinki.

Tuesday May 28 was going to be my final presentation and final day of riding but as I mentioned in "yesterday's" post, I met a mom along the Minute Man bikeway who really wanted me to talk at her elementary school. When opportunity knocks, who am I to say no? So I said yes and she contacted her principal to set it up. When I started the ride I had about 50 talks set up in advance and it was a ton of work. Most of my talks (204 of them) happened as this one did. After chatting with locals, they invite me over or set something up on the fly :-)

On my way to the school, my cousin's flowers greeted me as I left their house on this cool, cloudy late morning.

Midday the Minuteman bikeway was very empty.  It is a gorgeous multi-use path.

After a leisurely ride, I arrived at the Stratton Elementary School just after lunch. Even though I was staying nearby, I loaded all my gear on my bicycle so the kids could see everything I carried across the US.

Here was my set up for this talk in their multipurpose room.

Stratton Elementary School is fantastic. I got a very warm welcome from all the principal, staff, parents, and students. Some of these young students were very advanced and knowledgeable about our environment and zero waste. Here they all are along with their principal and me.

Riding back from the school I popped in at The Bike Stop located right on the Minuteman Bikeway in Arlington. It is great to have an excellent bike shop on a trail with snacks and cool drinks as well! 

The Minuteman Bikeway has some creative haiku along it to encourage good trail etiquette. 

It is good to have signage along a trail, just like a road, so you know where you are.

While biking along trails up the East Coast I was struck by how many trails had entrances from schools and private residences. Wouldn't you love to live right on a beautiful trail like this? Some people built stairs to the trail, some were paved, some just well trodden dirt tracks.  There were many backyards immediately adjacent to this trail and very few had fences even though this is a well populated suburban and urban area. Trails are great linear greenways to allow people to enjoy a park in their own neighborhood as well as get to places, including other parks. We need to stay close to nature so we can appreciate it and care for it. Plus it is good for our physical and mental health. Please encourage trail building in your own neighborhoods!

A bit more haiku along this trail.

Apparently donations are needed to keep this path plowed so it can be used during the winter. Would be good for cities to take this on as standard operating procedure. They plow for cars and should do the same for bicyclists and pedestrians. Plowing is standard for well used paths in Helsinki and Copenhagen :-)

Well that's it for my day by day blog posting on my transcontinental journey to meet with people across our great nation. Still to come are some epilogue blog posts but you'll need to wait a bit more until I free up time to finish writing them. Thanks for reading! 

I am giving post ride talks in the San Francisco Bay Area; see my main website at ZeroW.org for my speaking schedule.

 If you have not yet, there is still time to donate to my Climate Ride to help save our world for our kids! To donate, please visit Save Our Seas Climate Ride. Thanks!