City Life!

I had a wonderful day! Partly because I worked from home (yay!), since Besty (my car) needed servicing, and the shop had to keep her all day. :-( She should be better now, I just need to pick her up. I dislike having to maintain my car, and this is just one more reason why I need a good, handy, helpful husband. :-) The main reason why my day was wonderful was because I got to go out for a bike ride at lunch! Now how cool is that on a work day? Especially on a beautiful, warm, sunny California day. Just lovely! This is what I'm talking about, the way of life I'm looking forward to transitioning into and enjoying on a daily basis. I'm ready to work in my city, near my home, where I can ride my bike to work, shopping, eating out, and playing. I already do 2 of the 4, now I'm ready to transform completely into a real green, sustainable lifestyle. I'm praying this will happen before 2010 ends and it's looking very possible with each passing day.

I went out for a ride for lunch to do some networking with the local resturants and attractions. I made it to about 6 restuarants and the Aquarium. I'll be getting 10-20% discounts at some of the restaurants, which is cool! Yay! And for some others I need to provide a letter about my company and the benefit for them partnering with me, and I guess they have to approve it. I need to follow up with the Aquarium because the Sales person wasn't available. I'll continue making my rounds of networking with the local businesses over the next couple weeks and anticipate having a hefty list of partners for my tours. Hopefully the more stronger relationships I build, I'll be able to get bigger discounts and some free services.

It felt soooo good being out and about in the afternoon in Long Beach! It was so beautiful, sunny, warm and the beach was just cool to ride along! I went home excited to finish up my work day so I could get back on my bike and enjoy some more of my day and the sunshine. I'd planned to do some more networking, but I just ended up riding to a print shop to inquire about printing t-shirt samples, and then headed to Belmont Shore to help out with the Biggest Losers weigh-ins. So far they have $46,000 in the prize pool and there is still 3 more weeks to go in the 12 week contest! Last year the prize was $5o,000, so it's looking like they may surpass that this year. Afterwards, I rolled back home with a smile on my face and a warm, joyful feeling in my spirit that I intend to hold on to. This is living and I plan to enjoy it all!

Enjoy the journey!

My 1st Long Beach Marathon Bike Tour!

The LBC!  I love my city!  Today I rode in my 1st Long Beach Marathon and it was fun!  I can't wait to hear the final count of participants.  They were expecting 25,000 runners and 3,000 cyclists.  They want to get the cyclists number up to 10,000 next year and I believe it will happen.

The bike tour route took me to places I hadn't experienced before in the city, which is good because I can incorporate them into my bike tours.  I was 15 minutes late to the starting line because I couldn't find the bike lock that I've only used once, and of course it was right next to my bike right.  Then I had to check my backpack because I was going to volunteer at the 3 mile water station after my ride and I needed dry clothes to change into.  Any hoots, I made it, but was behind all of the recreational riders which can be slow and dangerous.  I found a little middle-aged man who was rollin' and stayed behind him for a while.  I liked his maneuvering skills.  So he got me moving along through the pack.  Then I lost him and was rollin' on my own.  But I found another guy who was really rollin'!  I was hustling to keep up, but he got me through another group of cyclists.  Then he took off and I couldn't keep up and I'm glad I couldn't.  The next turn we made he ate it!  I would have been right behind him and probably would've fell over him or fell trying to avoid him.  His fall looked pretty bad, but he seemed to fall in control, if that makes sense.  I, on the other hand probably, would've wiped out several people in the process of going down!  Lol!  Thank God I couldn't hang with him.  He was able to recover quickly which leads me to believe he didn't get hurt to bad.  I hope he's ok.

After the tour I changed clothes and went to see how I could get back to the 3 mile water station. They were starting the 5K run, and the marathon runners were still on the route.  I couldn't get through to volunteer and I felt bad about that :-(  So, instead I watch the runners for a bit and headed out to get some crepes with strawberries on the way home.  We've had an overcast and light sprinkles all weekend, but I enjoyed my breakfast on the patio anyway.  It was delicious too!  Now since I've been up since 5:00am and I didn't get a good nights rest, I'm about to take a nap. Lol!

Enjoy the journey!

Finally!

I'm ready! Today I filed my DBA for Cali Bike Tours! I'm on my way to a successful, booming, and more importantly, fun business and new lifestyle! I'm excited and exhausted all at the same time. Lol! God is good and I'm looking forward to it getting better and better. :-)

The first picture was taken riding along the bike path in Manhattan Beach at sunset. The second photo was taken in Newport Beach near my turn around point. You can see Palos Verdes in the distance in both photos. Crystal Cove is beautiful. I got married there over 5 years ago, and even though I'm now divorced, the beauty of this place still remains captivating.

Enjoy the journey!

Gold Heels On Wheels

What a fun Sunday afternoon! I volunteered to help with registration for the 15th Annual Dress To Impress Gala put on by the nonprofit Close The Deal.  They provide business attire for low income people looking for jobs.  This was my first interaction with the organization and I have to say I was impressed. They had 231 registered guests!  Lots of vendors who were donating a portion of their sales and productive volunteers.  

The gala was held at the Hilton downtown, which is close to me, so I decided to ride my bike instead of paying $9 for parking.  It may be about 3 miles from my house, if that.  So I put on my strapless black cocktail dress and gold stillettos and rolled out to the gala on my bike.  Since this was my first time riding in heels, I packed my cycling shoes in my backpack just in case they didn't work out. LOL!  Well they worked out, even with my lollipop cycling pedals!  I had a ball being all dolled up and riding my bike to a fancy gala!  Now I just need to get an about town bike which will probably be a beach cruiser with a hot paint job and a bell.

I got excited and inspired last week when I read an article in the New York Times about women riding all over town on their bikes, even to fancy affairs.  So why not bring that type of green thinking to the LBC?  Well, it's already here as of today! LOL!

Enjoy the journey!