I love Bill White

Well, not as in love love, but you know, just love. As mayor of Houston, he really stood behind making us a fitter city and providing the citizens with all the exercise opportunities he could. Bill White was an avid biker, so he supported and pushed for such things as bike donations, organized rides, bike safety and best of all: bike trails. When we bought our house 2 years ago, I was really excited to be only a quarter mile from the (at the time) almost finished bike trail. The Mayor's idea of Rails to Trails took all of the unused/abandoned railroad lines through town and replaced them with paved bike trails. From my house, I can pick up the trail going north about 2.5 miles or head south for about 4 miles before it dead ends.

After my long run this morning, it was such a pretty day that I decided it would be a great idea to bike to work. My bike trail heading south will take me under all the freeways and spit me out 2 miles from downtown where my office building is. Imagine my surprise when I reached the end of the trail today to be greeted with this:

Before, this was a grassy/gravel/untaken care of strip of land. It was very unsafe to run on since it was so uneven and even biking was a chore. I pretty much just avoided it and so did everyone else.

See the tract laid out where the concrete path will go? If you look hard enough, you can see where they've already started laying the concrete. I'm so excited! Soon I'll be able to run/walk/bike all the way to downtown and have access to the bayous, Eleanor Tinsley trails and the eastsidetrail. Bill White's plan is still in effect even now that he's no longer mayor. He wanted all of the trails to be connected throughout town and this is a big piece of that! I can't wait for this to be finished - and of course Hubby to be healed so that we can bike it together!