Greetings, friends, Jacque Howard here and welcome to Jacques REACH.
Recreation
Environment
Art
Civics
Health
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At this time I'm going to be sharing about recreation and talking about biking exercise, fitness end tourism, but before I begin a personal experience about biking when I was a young person.
Having a bike meant adventure for me, I remember riding bikes with my cousin who lived a few doors down and then being able to advance to riding bikes with the neighborhood children and friends and I also remember times where we would go on adventures with our bikes outside of the neighborhood.
I grew up in a time where BMX was very popular with my group of friends and we had a local BMX track as well as a couple of bike shops within riding distance so we would gather and make a trip of it to go to the bike shops or to go to the track.
Those times I still think about to this day, the camaraderie, the coming of age, so to speak, and also the exercise and fitness we received at that time.
That leads me to some of the archives that I'm going through. I'm looking at some images that I captured in August of 2015.
The images show we were doing a bike tour of Trenton, stopping at various sites throughout this city, this was a DIY.
Do it yourself kind of bike tour, different groups of people from the region who have an appreciation for biking, who also have an appreciation for Trenton.
The art scene and also the history of Trenton were highlighted, we stopped at a couple of restaurants, watering holes.
With bikes fixed with lights and art. We rode our way through the city, approximately 5 to 7 miles.
The images are filled with smiles and laughter and even looking at the technology and the craftiness of the Artists who put together their own bikes, whether a tall bike or custom fitted bike, like the one that I have. While riding it's nice to see smiling faces as we bike through neighborhoods.
There are some organizations that I've been affiliated with. I believe they are very helpful Trenton Cycling Revolution, is one of those, the Greater Mercer TMA, New Jersey Bike Walk Coalition. And several other organizations such as the City of Trenton, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commision, Lawrence Hopewell Trail and the multitude of bike shops and ancillary businesses that are here in this region to promote and to support biking and bike ped initiatives.
I'm fortunate enough to have a couple of friends who are very skilled and versed in this as well. Some are with us, and some are not. A big shout out to a few of those names and I encouraging you to reach out to them.
Wills Kinsley - Wills Makes on social media is a fabricator of many sorts, but also a bike aficionado, someone who is very skilled at crafting bike transportation projects. I'll say whether it's trikes. Tall bikes, modified bikes fitted with trailers and now even venturing into the e bikes scene.
Kevin Duddy, who is an accomplished road rider with racing experience. I've been able to learn about the international scene with biking and the culture of road racing here in New Jersey as well as Eastern Pennsylvania because of him.
And to my friend Jun, who transitioned not long ago. We spoke quite a bit about the culture of biking and the crossroads of Blackness in biking and to this day, I still rock his gift of Brooklyn gloves, thanks June!
Jim Simon, with whom I connected via Urban Agriculture has advance my understanding of vegetation and recognizing nature while biking whether it's the trails, modifying the rails, knowing best ways to deal with vegetation while out and about on your wheels and then to the opportunities that we have regarding tourism bike rolling.
If biking and pedestrian activites interest you, get in touch.
Be encouraged!
Remember it's always about Justice Peace and Humility.
