Oliver and I cycled the entire Local Food Trail this morning: from home to the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market, down to Purity Dairy for milk and butter, a double back to Riverview Country Market, and then to Receiver Coffee Brass Shop for bread.

Oliver was much more comfortable on his bike this morning, zipping along beside me and sometimes overtaking. Every time we met oncoming cycle traffic he rang his bell in solidarity and gave a hearty “good morning.”

The only debacle, and it was a minor one, was that the hex bolts that hold my handlebars on came loose as we headed homeward through Joe Ghiz Park. I had high hopes that I’d be able to use the bicycle repair station in the park to get myself sorted, but the hex key, if it was ever there, had been vandalized off.

Fortunately, as we entered the Water Street gravel storage lot to loop around to Receiver, we encountered more professional-grade cyclists, and I was able to borrow a hex set and tighten things up.

You wanna know the greatest thing about cycling to the market? It’s not the carbon we’re not emitting, it’s not the exercise, it’s not our membership in the grand fellowship of cyclists (although all those things are great). It’s that Oliver and I can do it together. Cycling is an inherently social practice in a way that driving a car is not.

Given that Oliver has been cycling for only three weeks, and that he’s naturally taken to this new mode of getting around on Saturday morning, I feel confident that I can say to you that if you live in Charlottetown and you’re still driving your car to the market, you’re doing something wrong.

Please consider following his lead: confront the innumerable reasons you will inevitably come up with for why you can’t possible not take your car, get your bicycle out of the shed, and join us on the trail next Saturday.