Things that Bring Me Joy: Biking + Picnicking
Me With My Mountain Bike and Custom Made Picnic Basket
For this blog post I’m going to combine two things that bring me great joy, riding my bike and picnicking! For as long as I can remember I loved riding my bike and I can remember every bike I ever had! My first one was red and had a black and white seat, this was the bike that I learned how to ride a bicycle on. My next bike was yellow, and it had a long banana seat with handlebars that curved upwards and reminded me of antlers. My next bike was a Ten Speed with super narrow tires and bronze in color. I got that one for Christmas from ‘Santa’. I had that bike for the longest time. My mom might actually still have it at her house! When I was in graduate school at MassArt in 2012, I bought a pink cruiser specifically for my mode of transportation when I was in residence in Provincetown, MA. It and a little basket on the front and was amazing. My daughter Bella liked it so much that when it came time for her to upgrade her bicycle, she requested a pink cruiser with a basket on the front. I received a ton of compliments on the pink cruiser and was sad to sell it when I graduated with my MFA. My current bike is a mountain bike, also bronze in color. After the cruiser I decided I need to add a basket to my mountain bike so that it was more functional.
It is this bike and this basket that I’m going to focus on for the remainder of this post as both inspired me to create a second picnic basket specifically for my bike. In Palisade one of the many things visitors do is bike to the different vineyards or on various mountain biking trails. In fact, on July 24, 2021 Palisade opened a new bike trail called The Palisade Plunge. It is a long-distance mountain bike trail that runs from the top of the Grand Mesa to the town of Palisade, CO, over 33 miles and 5,000' below the trailhead. The first 11.8 miles of the Palisade Plunge run from the Mesa Top Trailhead to the Shirttail Point parking lot. For more information on this trail check out this link: https://www.copmoba.org/palisade-plunge/.
Now that is some serious biking, and I’m not this kind of biker… I’m more of a leisurely rider who enjoys the day, the wind in her hair, and the sun on her face kind of gal. I do however like to have a destination in mind when I ride. It is with this in mind, that brings me to my second favorite thing to do which is picnic. One summer I decided Andy and I should bring our bikes to Palisade and ride from vineyard to vineyard and if we were going to do that, we should of course have a picnic. So… I created a picnic basket designed specifically for the basket on my mountain bike!
The first step was to take the measurements of my bike basket and then go in search of a basket that fit that size. If memory serves me, I found success at Hobby Lobby. Next up was figuring out what utensils to include in it. Earlier in the spring, I had made a trip to Palisade and picked up a mini fork, spoon, and knife just the right size for spreading and cutting cheese, retrieving olives, and spooning out jam or mustard, in a nutshell the trio was perfect for use in this new picnic basket. Next up was of course a corkscrew and wine glasses, a mini cutting board, plates and of course cloth napkins. And… we cannot forget the picnic blanket itself! I found the perfect sized basket at Hobby Lobby. Andy and I, together with our friends Laurie and David, took a 3-d printing/ etching workshop where we designed and etched custom wine glasses. I designed and monogramed a pair of wine glasses which I then used for this picnic basket! Once I had those, I purchased the cheese board and wine bottle opener. For the plates I decided to make them in my ceramics class. All that was left were the napkins and picnic blanket both of which I decided to make as well. Both were square in shape so I figured I could manage that, prior to this the last time I used a sewing machine was in high school home economics! And that my friends is how I made my own traveling picnic basket! Of course, being just a wee bit OCD I had to make sure the napkins and blanket harmonized in color as well as the interior of the picnic basket. For that basket detail, I called on my mom who is a master with the sewing machine (she is the one who taught me how to sew) and she finished off the interior of the basket. The pattern in the napkins was like that which I designed on the wine glasses.
So now that the picnic basket was complete it was time to put it in use! We packed up our bikes and headed to Palisade and the rest is history. If you enjoy riding bikes as well as a good picnic I encourage you to combine the two and head to Palisade as vineyard destinations are beautiful, enjoyable and quite tasty!
