Wednesday evening commute
After work last night, Pam and I planned to meet at Panera Bread on South Campbell for a quick supper before church. We calculated that if we met there by 5:30, we would have plenty of time to get to church by 6:00 when Pam’s class starts. We had storms on the way, so I was a little unsure if I could make it across town without getting wet.
The actual trip from my office to the south side of town is really quite pleasant and a nice straight shot. I took Kimbrough from Central Street to Cherokee. With the exception of about two blocks, Kimbrough is a three lane street, with a center turn lane running the length of it so cars have plenty of room to pass. In spite of a ferocious headwind last night, I was able to maintain a speed of 19-20 mph for most of that stretch so I didn’t feel like I was impeding any traffic at all.
Once you get south of Sunshine, Kimbrough starts breaking up, so I usually jog over one block to Jefferson. Jefferson is a designated bike route, which means it’s fairly low traffic, wide enough to be comfortable, and has stop lights to get you through the major intersections. With the exception of a couple of blocks around Battlefield Road, it’s pretty much a residential street all the way down to Kickapoo High School at Primrose. Again, in spite of being in 5:00 traffic, I felt really comfortable because I was in hardly any traffic at all.
That changed once I got to Primrose and needed to turn right and go across Campbell. At that point, I had no choice but to tuck into the line of traffic and endure the stop and go frustration of sitting through three cycles of the looong stop light at Campbell so I could cross over to Panera in the ParkCrest Shopping Center.
Panera Bread in ParkCrest
Pam pulled in just seconds after I did, so we had it timed nearly perfectly! After chowing down on what I consider to be one of the best sandwiches in town and a cup of soup, we headed on to church – Pam by car and me by bike. As I left, I paused to put my sunglasses away because the clouds were thickening and noticed that the wind was kicking up even stronger. From ParkCrest I would be going north, so it didn’t bother me in the least.
As I wound my way through the ParkCrest neighborhood, I was thinking about detouring over a block to ride by the house where I grew up. Just as I was about to turn, I saw some friends from church out walking their dogs ahead of me so I continued straight. When I called out to Debbie, she gave me one of those looks that said “I don’t recognize you at all in that outfit!”, and I could see her tense up. Luckily, she recognized me quickly enough and said “Boy, you’re sure out of your neck of the woods!”.
Debbie, Michelle, and the dogs
After visiting a minute, I continued on my way and made it to church in plenty of time to take a shower and make it to class by 6:30. I barely beat the rain, though. As I was hurridly stuffing my bike into the back of the Prius, the clouds opened up!
I really had a pretty good time roaming around town by bike yesterday evening! It just proved to me again what I already know. It really is pretty easy to get anywhere in town safely by bike.
God bless….
TW
Tags: bicycle, Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness, Panera Bread
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