February Cycling Challenge

I absolutely LOVE to bicycle. It is one of my favorite activities on earth! With this being said you would think I would be a regular right? Afraid not. My beloved old friend (my beautiful green schwinn 5 speed bicycle which I rode avidly junior high through late twenties and have drug around the country through 6 moves) sits quietly in the corner of my garage dreaming of days when it was used and loved (like the velveteen rabbit.....see how silly I am about my bike). At some point in time I forgot this love for riding. Then a few years back we went on vacation to Hilton Head Island. Now I have never been a beach fan like my husband, but looking over the island literature and reading about 50 miles of bicycle paths had me foaming at the mouth with excitement. I rented a cruiser within hours of arriving and spent the next 3 days pedaling along enjoying the view, feeling the breeze, chinging the little bell, and hunting for alligators. That first trip I rounded a bend in the Sea Pines resort and almost hit a huge 6-7 foot long fellow laying by some bushes. (they remove all alligators from the island that are this large now due to tourist safety, but I still spotted some cute 2 foot long fellows in the waters as I was cruising beside a golf course last trip) I have also had the opportunity to cruise around Barcelona Spain fall 2011 and did an eight mile loop around the Charles River in Cambridge/Boston MA this past summer. The only problem I had in Boston was that they didn't have a cruiser to rent at my hotel so I had to ride one of those narrow seated things. About 4 miles into the trip I felt like I had a brick shoved up my.......well you know....and was going to be permanently impaired from the experience. My love for cycling actually helped me overcome the pain and I still enjoyed the ride that day. I smile even now as I think about it. Since I joined MFP 35 days ago I have thought a lot about my old friend in the garage. I think I would like to get her out and have her repaired and brought to specs for some new adventures. Even though the area I live in isn't cruiser friendly (more ideal for a mountain bike) I think investing in a bicycle rack would be a great idea to get us to flatter terrain adventures and help me move on to a more healthy lifestyle. In the mean time, I recently ordered some awesome bicycling dvds from vitadvds.com to use with my stationary bike (which had also been collecting dust) If you ride stationary you should check these out. You are actually riding down the roads of great locations. I ordered two that were filmed in Ireland, one in Scotland, and one in Nova Scotia. It makes the time on the stationary actually enjoyable. So how do I plan to reward myself if I make my MFP weight loss goal and continue my new healthy lifestyle into 2014? I am going to take a bicycle barge tour of the Netherlands during tulip time spring 2014!!!!! Now that's what I call a real motivator!!!! Anybody else out there a serious "cruiser" ?