Biking our own way through the urban concrete jungle

Paved wooded trails, long gravel driveways, wide quiet culdesacs. Not our reality. 

And it's totally ok. Because we have crazy, lawless, crowded, uneven, noisy, littered, endlessly under-construction city streets for biking. Bus! Motorcycle behind you! Manhole! Watch out for the poo! Get off and push! Don't hit the grandma selling vegetables! Get some speed to make it over that giant hose! Ram the curb strait-on or you'll tip! C'mon it's green, go!

I really mean it. I choose to be thankful for the place God has given us to live, and to bicycle. I choose to be thankful for the place God has given for my children to learn how to bicycle. 

Last week I ran while the guys biked a 3-mile course through traffic madness of university town Changsha, from our apartment to Starbucks. A vanilla frap is to them enough incentive for just about anything. 

Titus and Mike exceeded my expectation! 

But we didn't ride bikes home, rather, the bikes rode the 305 home with us.

Later that week all four of us set out on wheels in the opposite direction through a newly-developed campus area, the least-traffic option. We stopped for classic spicy summer supper, outdoors on the street. See our little wooden table behind Titus?

On the ride back we visited a swan reserve and rolled down a steep green grassy hill until dark with some other children. Red taillights blinking, we then pedaled home through all the nighttime street madness. After dark the city comes alive.

Drew was compelled to pit-stop when we suddenly spotted an old favorite, Shandong wraps, from northeast China. You also would not be able to resist if you understood the tastiness of these crunchy-crispy-fresh-light-spicy-bbq wraps.

So it's not a trail, or a gravel road, or clean or quiet or even safe really. But it is our home, it is where God has placed us. And we are thankful, enjoying it, and biking our own way through.

counting the urban China bicycling graces

thank you Father for

learning to accept and appreciate the place you've placed us, and all that comes with it

exciting rides weaving in and out of diverse unruly traffic

helmets

nice bikes

boys getting old enough to keep up on rides

Titus and Michael forming their own experiences and memories

family rides

green gathering spaces, swans, quieter streets, street food, night lights

motivating destinations such as Starbucks

kind folks along the way

keeping us all unscathed