Bikes!

Yesterday Parrish & I decided to brave Craigslist and look for a couple of reasonably priced bikes for a couple of less-than-serious people who just want to relive a little of their childhood... and somehow manage to lose 20 lbs in the process (more on that later, so quit screaming at the screen that I don't need to lose 20 blah blah blah).

We ended up meeting this guy named John who likes to acquire bikes and sell them as a hobby. This dude is passionate about two things - fixing bikes, and his 4 cockatoos, the latter which I found a smidgen creepy but that's neither here nor there. He was super nice, and changed all four of Parrish's brake pads at no extra charge, and we got two pretty decent bikes for cheap. And by decent, I mean they are probably Wal-mart specials, but they'll work. I'm so thrilled with mine and I'm trying to name her but I haven't come up with anything yet.

Parrish has recently decided that he needs to be healthier and I am so proud of his decision to start exercising on a regular basis. He wants to lose 20 lbs but he's pretty realistic about how long that's going to take and what we have to do to get him there.

Since we don't have helmets yet, we decided to ride the loop and Parrish made it a little over a mile which is fantastic. I managed 2.4 miles and I'm pretty sure I almost died. It was so much fun though and I'm glad I got talked into getting a bike. Dare I say it... I think I like it better than running! It was something new and fun and while it was HARD I feel really good about what I did - I'm sweaty as hell, my quads burn, and I can't walk up stairs but it felt GREAT.

Does anyone know about bike gears? She's an 18-speed and I have 3 gears on the left hand and 6 on the right... but I'm not sure what the difference is between the two sides? Help!