The Open Road

Day 1 of the experiment involved the choice to bike to work about 5 miles away. We live on top of a really big hill, probably the biggest one in town, and to get nearly anywhere you have to go down this hill and then back up it. My plan was to chuck my bike in the back of my husband’s trusty wagon and hitch a ride both down and back up this hill, then hop out at his office and ride the rest of the way.

I am not much of a morning person, though, and on this particular morning when my husband kissed me good-bye I was still in my bathrobe mumbling incoherently. Though I tend to take a casual attitude towards my babysitting attire, I felt that showing up in my peignoir might be a bit of a liberty, so I changed my plans.

I decided to coast down the hill (whee!) and walk my bike back up. Yes, I am that person. I also wear a helmet, and I don’t take it off to walk my bike up the hill. You wanna make something of it? I’m never going to be one of those ladies who glides along on her bike in a sundress, hair flowing. I have not figured out how to be decent on a bike in a skirt. I give up trying to look cool, because

a)I’m already married, and my husband married me despite (perhaps because of) my dorkiness, and
b)I’m biking around in a helmet on my mother’s old bike, which was my brother’s before her, and
c)I’m about to go back to school for five years.

It would be pointless to act like I’m anything other than a geek at this point in life. (I tried similar arguments, to no avail, in convincing my brother that he’s a dork, his wife knows it and married him anyway, and he will destroy his back if he doesn’t suck it up and buy a rolling bookbag for the many 25-pound law books he carries around, but he was not persuaded)

Here’s what I learned on Day 1:

~I am not that fast on my bike. It is still a lot of fun for me. Probably equally fun for spectators.

~Drivers in this town are pretty happy to share the road, or at least the 25-mile-per-hour street.

~If you go into the bike shop with a flat tire, they don’t refuse you service on the basis that your weekly mileage isn’t high enough, your bike it too old, you’re a little wobbly at slow speeds. They are actually quite friendly.

~Going downhill is awesome.

~In spin class we imagine an outdoor setting for challenging portions of the program. The reverse works well for the final uphill leg of my trip home.

~In the past week, my husband and I have used, according to my calculations, exactly 7 car-days. Hurrah for us!