Another lonely day at the mail box

With no Mis-bits arriving from Canada Claus yesterday, I had some time to kill. When it's 31 degrees, cloudy, and windy finding the motivation to leave the comfort of the couch just to ride circles is tough. Luckily I had errands to run and no money for diesel.

It was one of those great days to ride disguised as a stay inside one. I truly love riding in cold gray weather, throw in some drizzle and it would have been ideal. JohnnyPod was thumpin' (did I mention he came back?), blue sky would peak through the clouds just enough to tease you with some added warmth, and a mix of urban, back country, and never before seen roads kept me out on the bike for 3 fun filled hours.

I explored the closest "big city" to me, Springfield, TN population a staggering 15,916. For the relatively small size of the city, there is an extreme amount of traffic on the 2 highway town. A quick memorization of Google Maps and I was off to complete my list of errands and explore the city. I found some cool roads, learned a lot about the history of the town (wool mills anyone?), tried to rescue some kittens hiding out inside a bush outside the post office, found an amazing hidden gem that I never imagined would exist in this sleepy little town, and still haven't found a place to get a coffee.

There is a building, and old service station from days gone buy, in the Y of Main Street that I would love to buy and fix up. It'd be a great place to sell DoubleShot coffee along side a used bike sales / repair shop. Maybe I could rent the place and work freelance gigs out of it while operating a small town TN version of the Bike Kitchen. Work with Parks and Rec to start a local bike scene, like cyclocross in the park, or downtown fat tire crits for kids and adults alike. The economy is in the pisser. Even HCA is cutting 109 IT jobs. Costs are escalating, homes are being lost, with the holidays coming how soon until reports (or fear inducing reports) from the media about rise in crime? Getting the kids outside playing, competing, having fun, all for low costs but high gains (fitness, fun, friendship) might be a way to add a silver lining to this gloom cloud called the present.

It's a rural town, so dreaming of making it a Copenhagen or Portand is rather silly, but giving the kids an avenue into a fun sport (cycling) in a town ideally suited for the activity may not be such a crazy dream. The parks are already connected by a gorgeous greenway. Plenty of open grass for a cyclocross setup. Downtown is smack dab inbetween parks and not far from the greenway. All the pieces are there, they just need creative uses for these underused gems to be illustrated.

Why cyclocross? Well because it doesn't require a lot of space, trails don't need to be built for it, roads don't need to be closed, and grass is fun to ride on. BMX, 12", 16", 20" kids bikes, road bikes, cruisers, mountain bikes, walmart bikes, all kinds can be used to participate. It's available year round and its small footprint allows for a spectator friendly event, so family members can cheer and jeer for participants from the comfort of a bench or folding chair. Even a weekly grass crit series could be fun.

That's my stimulus package idea. Stimulate the town to get outside, have fun, enjoy what they have instead of mourning over what they don't or worrying about what they won't.