Bike to Work Day

It's not an officially sanctioned Bike to Work Day, but nonetheless, I made it one today. Didn't really plan to, though I had thoughts this week that I should, but when I woke up two hours early this morning, I had plenty of time to strategize the various issues that go along with biking to work: timing, packing and clothing. It all came together nicely, I didn't forget any part of my work ensemble, and the ride on my new Trek mountain bike actually felt pretty good. 

I rode into downtown which is always a bit of a nightmare at rush hour, fraught with giant buses just inches away spewing toxic exhaust clouds in our cycling faces. Then there are the Metro Mobility buses that take a sudden left turn right in front of you, and the cops pulling over drivers into the bus lane where now a single lane is being navigated by buses, cyclists and misplaced taxi drivers. But once over that hump, onto the relative quiet of the Cedar Lake trail, everything settles down. From there it's a breeze getting to work. 

Getting home tonight, not such a breeze. I decided to try an alternate route that would lead me around the downtown zone. I took the Greenway all the way to the West River Road, but I'll admit, I had no clue just how far out of the way that was. Yowza. True, it was all trail which was nice, but it literally took me twice as long to get anyway near home, and by that time I was going to be late for my 6:00pm board meeting at the old Grain Belt Brewery so I decided to just keep pedaling all the way there. I won't lie to you, that felt like a long ass ride so early in the bicycling season! Of course, now that it's done, I'm super glad I did it. But I'm just as glad I can't ride tomorrow due to my work schedule!