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Why do you walk everywhere?
Two nights ago, I was communicating, via FaceTime, with my granddaughter Adalyn. Usually, we start at 6:00 p.m., but I am currently leading a class on the book of Proverbs at my church at 6:30. Thus, Adalyn and I have been trying to start a little earlier. When the sidewalks are clear (of snow and ice), I can usually bike to church in close to 5 minutes, but if I need to walk, the time is closer to 15 minutes (plus some setup time once I am there). Lately, due to the numerous days of snow, I have been walking more than I have been biking. So I told Adalyn that we would have to wrap it up soon since I needed to walk to church. She then asked “Why do you walk everywhere?”
I answered her by telling her that on the previous day, I had driven to the store (mostly because I needed to start the car, since it had been 3.5 weeks since its last use). Adalyn then gave me a high-five and a hurray. As I walked to church, I started thinking more about this.
Almost every morning, I take a walk for about 1.5 miles. I use this time for prayer, but also to stretch and start my day with peace. I also sometimes take an afternoon walk, and I may listen to a podcast then. When Marcia was alive, she would typically join me (if it was not too cold) on the morning walk, and we would also often take a walk later in the day. Outside of those times, my preference for transportation is my bicycle.
I got my first bicycle when I was about 5 or 6. It was a 20″ or 24″ Schwinn. In May of either third or fourth grade (by fifth grade, we were in Fargo), I rode my bike to Lincoln school. This ride was 5.3 miles, and it was my longest ride at that point. I think I underestimated how long it would take me, and I may have been a bit late. My parents never let me know that they had any concern about me crossing U.S. 10 (a busy four-lane road), but in hindsight, I am hoping they did. (Perhaps I didn't ask or tell them that I was biking, but not likely.) Up to that point, I had sometimes ridden around the "block", which was mostly on gravel roads and was a bit more than 4 miles around.
When we moved to Fargo, I got a used Stingray bike (see below) and then later a different, larger 10-speed bike. This was my key to freedom, and I rode all around the Fargo region. I would easily put on 10-15 miles on some days. One summer, (I believe) after 7th grade, I pushed my parents (mostly my father, since then I was golden) about my riding from Fargo to St. Cloud, which was about 180 miles. My dad decided to give me a boost and drove me to Barnesville (30 miles SE) early in the morning and let me start from there. I got a flat tire in Avon, about 120 miles later. Did I have the means to fix or change it? No, I was a crazy young kid not knowing what I was doing. I called Grandpa's place, and Linda came and got me with the truck. It was near dark when she picked me up.
Classic stingray
In the summer after my 8th grade, I made arrangements with my parents to let me bike from the cabin back to Fargo. This trip was more than 200 miles, and I knew it would take more than a day, so I made a few preparations for the night. I believe I brought with me a space blanket to cover myself and a few other things. I pulled into Park Rapids, more than halfway, about as it was getting dark. I found a house that had some space in its backyard, and I stopped. I explained my situation and asked if I could spend the night in their backyard. They agreed, but after 10 minutes they came out and offered me a floor inside. I was happy about that. I got up early the next morning and got to Fargo that day.
At the end of that summer, we moved back to our home in St. Cloud (which we had been renting out to the Red Owl manager). I think by this time, the road outside our house was paved and the airport was built (which then changed my "block"). Over the next year, I often found myself biking east on Sherburne Road #3, since there was not a lot of traffic on it, and I could go a good distance in that direction.
During my sophomore year, I met Marcia and we started seeing each other. Either the summer after this year or the next, one day, Marcia, her sister Jo, a friend of hers, and I decided to take a bike ride, and we explored many of the county roads of Sherburne County (see map above), putting on about 65 miles. Again, either that summer or the next (but I think that one), Marcia visited some friends in Motley for whom she had babysat in the past. I rode my bike to visit her there, spent the night, and returned the next day.
In the fall of my junior year, I went out for soccer. As a way to get home after practice, I would often bike to Tech High School in the morning. If I didn't bike in, I would take the bus in the morning and then hitch-hike home after practice (of course, meaning usually several miles of walking on the country roads). In the summer, Marcia had a job at Tomlyanos (a pizza joint), but also as a Bible camp counselor at Trout Lakes Camp near Pine River for two weeks. I rode my bike up to see her and then on to Fargo to see my friends and then home again. I don't remember if I spent a night at this campground or not. My memory suggests that in Fargo, I stayed with a couple who were friends with my parents from NDSU. I think I spent a day or two there before returning.
At Trout Lakes Camp
After my senior year in high school, I got a job working for the St. Cloud Park & Recreation department. My task was to supervise the paddle boat enterprise at Lake George. Each day, I biked in for that job, about 7 miles. Toward the end of the summer, I was scheduled to speak at the Camper's Church at Gooseberry Falls State Park. My departure time coincided with the time Norm was going to bike to Montreal and back. We rode together to Duluth and then went our separate ways. I went to the park, did my Sunday morning sharing, and then biked up to Okonto Fellowship, just off the Gunflint Trail. I spent the night at the chapel and then biked up to Thunder Bay, Ontario. I spent the night there (covering myself with a space blanket for the night) and then biked back to St. Cloud.
How my grandparents saw Gooseberry Falls in 1929
After my freshman year at St. John’s University, I got another job with the St. Cloud Park & Recreation department. That year, I was one of two playground supervisors at Lincoln school, the school to which I had biked as a child. How did I get there every day? Yes, I biked. Since Marcia and I were making plans for marriage the next year, I made plans for a longer bike ride for this summer. I knew that my cousin Wally had biked around Lake Superior, and I thought that sounded interesting. I didn't realize until later that his group had a truck that carried all their gear. Norm loaned me his panniers for the back rack, a front bag, and I filled them with things I thought I might need. Yes, I finally learned to plan. My brother Lou loaned me some of those things that were compact: a tent, a sleeping bag, and a stove. That was an interesting trip that deserves a blog on its own.
Getting back from a Superior trip
After Marcia and I were married, we eventually moved to Albany, MN, where I taught high school mathematics for five years. We (mostly) lived a bit less than a mile from my school. When the roads were not too snowy or icy, I would bike, but otherwise I would walk during much of the winter. Some time after Tim was born, I attached a bike seat for him, and the three of us would take long bike rides around town. When Carrie was born, we bought a bike for Tim, and he learned to ride by the time Carrie could hold herself up in the back of my bike.
Albany, June 1984
When we moved to Notre Dame, IN, our married student housing was under 2 miles to my office on campus. I typically biked, but sometimes I walked with a classmate and friend, Roger Olson. We would also bike as a family on the weekends. One weekend, we all went to Potato Creek State Park and we rented a tandem bike and had a blast. (My good 10-speed got stolen within 2 months of moving to Notre Dame.)
Potato Creek outing
We moved to Pella, IA, on July 1, 1989. At the home we rented until April of the next year, it was about a mile ride to my office. Later, I was about 0.6 miles from the house that we bought (and where I still live), but when my office moved west, it was then about 0.9 miles. I biked almost every day to work, unless it was too icy. About once a year, I would drive because I had to be somewhere right after work.
In the summer of 1991, I and three other Central College professors (and two wives) drove to Jasper National Park in Alberta. We biked south to Glacier National Park. We crossed the continental divide thrice, and we had a grand time. The next year, the four of us rode parts of the Root River trail in southern MN and other roads in the hilly region of SE Minnesota.
Al, south of Jasper National Park
As a family of four, we would take bike rides on several roads around Pella that I now refuse to ride. There are too many people interested in texting on their phones or creating other distractions. We would also ride on the Friends Annual Bike (FAB) ride, including one year with Christina. Years later, the Volksweg bike trail was built in Pella, and we would often ride that. Christina, Marcia, and I camped and biked along the Root River trail and other places like it (including near Itasca State Park).
Biking at Itasca State Park
As the kids got older, it was more often only Marcia and me who would take rides on the bike trail, often going to the end at Fifield Park. Although it was extended beyond Fifield while Marcia was still alive, turning around at Fifield or before was enough for her (usually 14 – 20 miles round trip). We increasingly used our bikes to get groceries, run errands, and go to church. When it was just Marcia and me at home, we almost exclusively used our bikes for all commerce and travel within Pella. We would sometimes drive, but more often it was just to keep the battery charged.
When Marcia's cancer metastasized to her chest, she found it too painful to ride either her in-town mountain bike or her road bike because of the pressure on her chest. For that reason, and since there was also cancer in her brain and I was concerned about her balance, I bought her a recumbent tricycle. She was so thrilled, and it became the highlight of her day for us to take a ride together.
Marcia enjoyed her recumbent
In her last year, we made a trip to see Tim's family, and then spent about 4-5 weeks in Florida, and then drove to see Carrie's family. The place we rented in FL had two bikes, and Marcia found that she could ride those with no chest pain. We would ride to the beach every day while on Siesta Key in Sarasota and then either bike or walk on the beach, often in the morning and evening. When we got back to Pella, however, she found her bike painful and felt better on her tricycle. This may have been in part because it was too cold to bike at first, and at that point her body was degenerating again.
Marcia on evening Siesta Key beach ride
Almost immediately when we first moved to Pella and people knew that we biked, we were asked if we rode RAGBRAI. To me, it sounded like a roving, noisy party since my largest group ride had 4 people, which was plenty. After numerous discussions, I signed up for it last year (2020) by joining the Pella Cycling Club. Due to COVID constraints, RAGBRAI was cancelled last year, but it seems to be on this year. Perhaps in August I can finally answer this question with “Yes”.
My answer to Adalyn's question "Why do I walk everywhere/" should have been: I don't; I bike everywhere.
Published 2021-02-11. Revised 2025-07-05.
If you find any error(s) in the text, please let me know. Thanks. Contact me with errors or comments using hibbardac@gmail. [Back to the top] [About the author, Al]
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