I started bike riding nearly one year ago (going to be in May). It all began for me as a way to keep myself on shape and to able to commute to and from work. My destinations were mainly between my house, the gym Ballys Total Fitness that was located on 135th Aurora N near Grocery Outlet before it closed down, and work at Barnes & Noble. This, of coarse seems like a cheap and lonely life for someone who is more of an extrovert more than an introvert like me. But non the less I seem to enjoy my personal time. It seems like everything that we try in life, several doors of oppertunities open up I get a bike with all the necessities, lights, helmet, gloves, etc. Then I realize that I need a map (since at the time I didn't have a phone with gps tracking system at the time).

Once I got my map I had to learn how to read it. Getting the bike often times meant that at times I had to try certain routes hopeing that I won't get lost and "just go for it" so to speak. Once I had all that nailed down that's when I started thinking about the trails. I rode around Green Lake 10,000 times over and got tired of that. Then when my gym closed down I was faced with the option to quit my membership cuz there's no way in hell I'm going all the way to Lynnwood just to workout. It's just to far! After a while optimism kicked me in the stomach and I did a few address searches for a Ballys Total Gym in Lynnwood, WA. I found one near Scriber lake Rd. Plugged the address into mapquest online and realized that 12 miles one way is really not that far. I knew of the Intrturban Trail that runs near my house to Edmonds and further more up north. I've taken it before and got lost on it. I hate getting lost! It sucks! So to avoid the same situation from happening again id get off the trail on 200th and 99th at the Seattle/Lynnwood transit station near Costco, Home Depot, and Big 5 sporting goods, and just take any Lynnwood bus to the gym.

Over the coarse of time the Seattle Interurban Trail went from being this "useless trail of curiosity" to a full fledged "highway" for me. I ride that trail a couple of times a week up north from my house to Lynnwood, I run most of my errends near that trail. Besides heading to the gym that is. It was a documentary on the Interurban Trail that I saw on one of the local.tv channels here in Seattle that sparked an idea about the history in my backyard unto which I started blotting about this. I love alt of history and am the type of person who can spend hours digging in old peoples attics and looking at what they got up there, how they got it, and what was their life journey like before my generation. Not to mention what big historic events they witnessed in their lives that changed the coarse of our nations history. Like WWII vets who lived through Pearl Harbor. Or in recent history those who witnessed the 1980 eruption of My. St. Helens. People who have direct lineage to pioneers who settled the west in the 1800's. That kind of stuff has always fascinated me and because of this I have nothing but the highest respect for the generation that came before me. They made mistakes, learned from them and started rebuilding, reshaping, to have what we have today. It is. To no wonder that before the boomers generation the ones that came before them were known as the builders.