When you’re living in a city, it seems that any green patch of earth should be celebrated. If all you’re doing is celebrating, maybe it’s time to start supporting their protection and expansion too! Gayord Nelson, the co-founder of Earth Day once said that “the ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”
So, if you’re passionate about enjoying the outdoors, take some time to lend a hand at preserving them for others, too. Here are some easy ways to get involved:
1. Sign the Pledge
Even if you’re not a devoted biker, surely you understand why the future of biking must be preserved. Biking is not only an extremely healthy pursuit; it’s also a powerful form of transportation with very little impact on the environment. That’s why we recommend that you take a moment to sign the pledge to preserve the future of biking at PeopleForBikes, an organization that urges U.S Senators and Congressmen to make new, low-cost investments into biking programs and facilities (including the expansion of bike trails and paths in urban environments).
2. Become an Advocate
Learn about becoming an advocate for Parks and Recreation by visiting their website and reviewing the federal and legislative issues that impact parks and recreations. By just spending a few minutes on the website, you’ll learn the steps you need to take to help save your community’s green assets.
3. Support Local Initiatives
The best thing you can do to help your local green spaces is to support the initiatives that help make them thrive. Check out this local Trails and Open Spaces Coalition in Colorado and then research what you can do in your neighborhood, follow the associations that affect your region on Facebook, Twitter, and volunteer to help make community gardens thrive.
It’s July 2nd. I’m guessing for most of you here in the US, that signifies a certain pining for the long weekend ahead, fireworks, and a cold one in the park. While we’re excited for the July 4th
weekend also, and hey, it would be the perfect excuse to shamelessly promote Urban Blanket Bags as your perfect long weekend accessory, it’s also the day before our favorite annual event begins, Le Tour De France!
I know, I know, you just expended all the energy you have for ‘new’ sports interests on the World Cup, but now that our guys couldn’t stack up against Ghana, it’s time to tune into Le Tour! It’s this monkey’s opinion (and hope), that we’ve got an all-star year for American riders.
When I first got into following cycling, it was a pretty intimidating world with lots of names I’d never heard, technical lingo that seemed ridiculous, and short men in bright spandex. But then, I got my first glimpse of a breakaway move and it was lights out. I’m hooked. Here’s a classic Lance Armstrong video with one of his now infamous moments at 2:25 and a video of a Sandy Casar breakaway move that’s pretty jaw dropping considering those guys are already doing ~22 mph when he hits the ‘gas’ about 21 seconds into the video.
Ok, did that get your heart racing? Here’s some fun things to follow on this year’s Tour. Like every year, the route is a little different, so to give you some perspective, here’s this year’s route map. It’ll take these guys most of the month of July to complete it (you can watch live coverage starting on July 3 on Versus). One thing to make watching the Tour more understandable is to remember, this is a month long event based on the best overall time. So, there’s lots of talk about winning stages and dominating mountain sections, but it’s fastest overall time that takes the big prize.
Most of the hype this year will be around Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong. Why the drama? Last year, Contador won the Tour de France with Lance on the same team taking third place. This year, Lance has created his own team poaching a large portion of the riders from last year’s winning team. Adding do the buzz, Lance has also indicated this is his last Tour.
Besides Lance and Condator, a lot of the talk and coverage will go to British rider Mark Cavendish (a truly legendary sprint finisher who has proven just about unbeatable in the final push to the line) and the young American, Tyler Farrar, who will try again this year to crack Mark’s record of perfection. Here’s a really quick video of a Cavendish finish to give you a flavor for how insanely fast this guy can go:
There’s also going to be plenty of talk about team Saxo Bank and the Schleck brothers who hope to unseat Contador, not just in the mountains where Contador beat up on them last year, but to win the overall race (Andy Schleck came in 2nd in ‘09).
Ok, you’re almost there, you’re ready for the action to begin, now you just need an “underdog” to root for. Well I’ve got my favorite American rider and I’m hoping you’ll be rooting for him too, because I’ve got a feeling he’s going to be sneaking up on all these guys to take a spot on the podium. Christian Vande Velde is the name, and pure bad a** is his game. He’s no rookie. In fact, he was a part of 2 of Lance’s winning Tour de France teams and has plenty of accolades of his own. But in 2009, he showed what kind of toughness he’s really got. Less than 2 months before the Tour, Christian broke 7 bones (five vertebrae, a rib and his pelvis). Seven weeks later, he took 8th place in the Tour. Do I need to say more? Ok fine, I will. Even finishing the Tour is a major accomplishment with all that can go wrong in 3 weeks of intense riding. To come in top 10 is a lot of these guys dreams when they are completely healthy. Go show them what you’ve really got Christian!
Now go get outside and enjoy the long holiday weekend, but don’t forget to tape le Tour!
May is National Bike Month, but we at Monkey Bed think biking to work is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your community all year. REI asked the other day on their blog, Have You Tried Bike Commuting?, wondering what’s preventing 98.4 percent of Americans from commuting by bike. We won’t drone on here with all the environmental, health, and economic issues it helps address, but lets all nod our heads and acknowledge they are huge before we jump right in to shamelessly bribing you to bike to work.
That’s right, we have a bribe to offer bike commuters! We’ll be developing the next Monkey Bed product this summer on the streets of the northeast and we need your help. We’re looking for people in New England or the Tri-state area who commute to work on their bike, or even bike regularly on the weekends. If you’re already at it, reach out to us by e-mail, by leaving a comment, by tagging a Tweet with #bikecommuter, or leaving a comment on our Facebook page. We’ll get you all the details separately, but you’ll be asked over the summer for things like feedback on ideas and help testing prototypes.
In exchange you’ll get one free final product that you helped develop and a couple coupon codes for friends!
Space is limited, so reach out soon. For those of you wondering if now is the time to give bike commuting a try, it is. Start today and then e-mail, comment, tweet, or facebook us to be included in our small bunch of VIP Monkeys!
Here's where we share news about our community, highlight partners, and keep you posted on the latest news, travels, and products from Monkey Bed. Want to be a guest blogger or have news to share? E-mail us.
Wanna keep up? Bookmark this page, swing by when you feel like it, grab the RSS, or subscribe to our quarterly newsletter below.
Earth Day once said that “the ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”
That’s why we recommend that you take a moment to sign the pledge to preserve the future of biking at PeopleForBikes, an organization that urges U.S Senators and Congressmen to make new, low-cost investments into biking programs and facilities (including the expansion of bike trails and paths in urban environments).
