Rode to Joy from Pattie Baker on Vimeo.
Four and a half years ago, for reasons shared in my book, I started riding my bike in the City of Atlanta every day. I asked friends to come along with me, and they did. That saved my life in ways they don’t even know. After the first year, I made the quick 52-second video posted above (that’s my sweet younger daughter and me la-la-la-ing). If you are a friend of mine, you may see yourself in it.
Lots has happened since then but one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s the joy — from the very second I get on a bike, before I even start to pedal. Every single time. And so, this year — despite, despite, despite — I’ve decided to shine a light once again on the sheer, unadulterated, timeless, wind-in-the-hair, sing-out-loud joy of it all, especially since I’ve been riding only where my business-on-bike is wanted lately and have almost completely given up on the places where it simply doesn’t work without assuming a level of risk I consider unacceptable. As I say in my book’s FREE bonus epilogue, life is too short for bad bike rides.
Please join me on joy rides throughout 2018, whether or not you actually ride (I tickle your memories alive in chapter 1 of Traveling at the Speed of Bike, which you can sneak-peek at here, if you want to feel like a kid again). We’re gonna have fun. And at the end of the day, just like when we were kids, that’s the thing I think we’ll remember most.
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 