Oh, it was a most beautiful day. The sky was all robin’s egg blue and it was warm in the sun, so warm I went riding in my fluffy summer skirt and the softest t-shirt I could find and some leggings. I took the Surly over to the Freret Street Market, over to Gris Gris Lab for pancakes and fellowship, and then down to the Juiceteria for a bagel and some grading. It just felt so good to be out on the bike today, and the streets were full of other people feeling good in exactly the same way. We’ve all been waiting for the “nightmare winter” to end, as J. so dramatically proclaimed when I ran into him at the Bounce Festival in the Lower Garden District on my way home. Before I got there, though, I just rode around aimlessly, pedaling as fast as I could, trying to get myself lost. Which I did. I’m not good at Mid-City, you know, but I just rode along St. Bernard, figuring I’d come out somewhere familiar. I stopped at the corner of N. Rocheblave to snap this picture of the Williams & Williams Bicycle and Lawnmower shop. It’s not operating anymore, but I really wish I could go back and go shopping for my bike in there. And a lawnmower. I wonder how those two came to make sense as a business model, and I wonder what made it end. I got myself reoriented at Claiborne at the Circle Foods Store. Now that’s a place that lets you know where you are, and a business model that we know works. Here’s hoping the momentum to get it reopened keeps on building. And on a selfish note, here’s hoping today really was the start of summer, because good lord, I love riding my bike around with no destination, feeling the sun on my shoulders.