Virginia Beach to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard- 16.2 miles.
In my beater Volvo, a 40 minute drive, 15 of which is spent at a dead stop in traffic. The trip takes me over some interstate, through a tunnel and ends up in a mostly industrial area skirted by ghetto.
On my Kona Jake cyclocross/commuter bicycle, it's a different route, mostly residential, three bridges (one old iron drawbridge) past a few lakes, a college, plenty of marsh and wetlands.
My bike trip is time to think- Of course im concentrating on the route and my safety in traffic, but its a much more spacious amount of room for thought. By the time im at work or back at home, I have had at least three awful songs stuck in my head, long and pondering thoughts about my family, an animal sighting or two, analysis of my speed and rpms as well as changing hand positions on the bar, recollections of misc things from my now distant youth and visions of the maybes of the future. Its better than talk radio and XFM in that Im the dj... I do like my IPOD, but im out of fresh podcasts.
Im glad to be back on the road- Its really a "walk the walk" thing for me since I spend a significant amount of time tinkering and tweaking on any number of bicycles. I have missed it for 20 months of my 23 month tour in Virginia. The 20 mile ride each way and especially the two lane road with no shoulder along shore drive near little creek was just too intimidating at 0530 in the morning- nearly invisible even with reflective gear and lights, it would be a really lousy way to leave my wife and kids... I can do the 16 miles on the sidewalk if I realy had to. Much safer and a perfect distance for a one hour goal time (gotta get my avg speed up to about 15 or 16mph.
Centerfold shot:
My first fixxxie beater (Panasonic) I made and rode in Hawaii. $1.00 at the thrift store, a new set of tires and tubes from the LBS, a track cog from EBay
, and off to the races.
