Darn Trusty!

Yesterday I cleaned out of my car the rest of the carnage left from the cross country trip. I road out on my bike on a mission to go grocery shopping. I still had yet to find a Market of Choice grocery store and am starting to question if they exist. Well, after a few u-turns and parking lot cut throughs, I finally found one. It’s a really great market! Much like Whole Foods but I don’t think quite as expensive.

First, though, I had to get my coffee fix and got to try out a new place called Supreme Bean. They make a delicious iced soy latte and I appreciated that it was very low key, comfortable and uncrowded. Many of the clientele seemed to be very familiar with the staff which gave it a community feel. It’s very close to me, so much so that I only realized I passed the shopping center when I was 10 blocks beyond it! I took my time paging through a magazine that featured the green businesses and other establishments around the area..like a green yellow pages, if that makes any sense.

I made my way slowly through the market, figuring out where my mainstays were and discovering a lot of new to me brands. Eugene has a lot of local manufacturers- a creamery nearby that produced Nancy’s Yogurt, there is Bob’s Red Mill, Stash Tea, Tillamook Cheeses…so I went extra slow finding all these gems. Buying local is so good for the earth and it’s so nice when it’s made easy. If only it could be that way everywhere.

At the checkout line, I watched the bagging girl expertly fill up my pannier and I lugged it out to my bike. I had to stop, though, coming out the door to take a few cloud pictures…

I’m always so surprised that it isn’t harder to ride a bike with all the weight on one side, but it isn’t. I got home easily and, because I’m a dork, weighed myself with the bag. 25lbs of groceries all fit in my trusty pannier! I love that thing. It’s funny, I only remembered at the end of my shopping expedition that I needed to cycle it all home. Now I know I needn’t have worried!

For the beautiful evening, I lounged out back on the deck listening to my music and drinking tea.