April 23, 2007

test ride

Beginning Mileage: 1450.0
Ending Mileage:    1450.5
Total Mileage:         .5

I finally replaced the blown inner tube from my last ride, and took a ride around the block to make sure things were working the way they should.  A map of this route is not depicted on this page, but the route was the same as the red route on the April 15, 2007 journal.

bike to work and back

Beginning Mileage: 1450.5
Arrive at work:    1454.5  (X on map)
Stop at 703:       1457.7
Ending Mileage:    1458.5
Total Mileage:        8.0

A bit later in the day, I decided that I would bike to work.  The parking lot at work is being redone (again...) so I knew that parking might be a challenge, though I wasn't quite sure about the weather, as there had occasionally been sprinkles throughout the day, but I decided I may as well go for it.  I set out south on 13th Street, turned left onto Layton Avenue, then right onto 6th Street.  6th Street is the toughest part of this route, since the road could use some joint-patching.  And this in spite of its "bike route" status south of Layton Avenue to Grange Avenue!  Methinks an e-mail to the alderman may be forthcoming.

One advantage of using this route over my normal driving route is that it takes about a mile off the trip, since I can cut through the parking lots at MATC.  The other advantage is that I stay off 13th Street between the College Avenue intersection and Rawson Avenue, which is in even worse shape than 6th Street, and handles much heavier automotive traffic as well!

It was dark on my way home, so I strapped a "safety flasher" to my arm in the MATC parking lot.  As I made my way into the dark spot on 6th Street by the airport, I flipped on my headlight, but the road was so bumpy that I had problems keeping the headlight on.  At Carpenter Avenue, I decided I'd head over to 7th Street (the orange "alternate route" on my map) and stop at 703 for a beer, and the Brewer game was on in the 10th inning, so I watched it till they won 5-4 in the 12th.  I then set out towards home.

I'll be sure to use this "brown route" frequently, and occasionally follow the "alternate route" throughout the summer...