Rode my bicycle through Bellevue for a visit to the AAA to pick up some literature for an upcoming vacation.
I thought it would be cool to take a photo of my bike locked up to a handrail outside the AAA logo on the front door. No, they don’t have a bike rack.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the memory card in the camera, so no photo.
Instead, here’s a short recipe for a very tasty smoothie I often make after a ride.
Energy smoothie
It has all the useful ingredients to recover from an exhausting ride: carbs, protein, calcium, potassium and Vitamin C.
As you can see, I start with the aged family blender. I throw in a handful of frozen strawberries (blueberries would work too), a banana, about a cup of vanilla-flavored yogurt, orange juice and a quarter-cup of egg substitute.
Sometimes I’ll use a little less OJ and substitute with soy milk.
If you’re into body-building, I suppose you would throw in a couple of tablespoons of human growth hormone before you hit the blend button.
I have no idea of the nutritional value of the drink, but it fills me up so I’m not hungry after my ride and I don’t eat a lot of bad crap before dinner. I consider myself a beer drinker, but I’ll have one of these before the suds.
Vanishing bike lane
By the way, most of my 15-mile bike ride through Bellevue to AAA was on bike lanes until I hit the intersection of 140th Avenue and 8th Street. That’s were the north-south bike lane mysteriously disappears in Bellevue in the commercial sprawl of the Bellevue-Redmond district and cyclists are on their own.
I continued with my front and rear blinkers going and tried to make myself very conspicuous the remaining mile to my destination.
30 Days of Biking
Total days — 17/17
Total miles — 240
2 comments
I let my AAA membership lapse because of their active lobbying against federal funding of bike and pedestrian projects. It’s not enough to just lobby for cars, but they go well beyond that to say that biking and walking are not viable forms of transportation. Now as for smoothie vs. beer…post ride, hands down, it’s a beer.
Author
I considered letting my AAA membership go, but I still worry about car breakdowns etc in the family, so I’ve reluctantly held onto it. That didn’t prevent me from writing them about my strong objections to some of their policies.
As for beer after a ride, I must be too dehydrated after a ride, because the beer just gives me a headache. After a big glass of water or the smoothie or a chocolate milkshake, I’m ready to imbibe.