It's Day Two and I still have to get off to walk my bike part of the way up Alaska to the Junction! Today, I feel like a new person though. I don't feel fresh off the boat, or in my case, fresh onto the bike path. There are more bikers today and I take my time and let them go around me. I can't help but stare at most of their calves like an adolescent boy stares at a set of double D breasts...I am that fascinated! I wonder what gear speed they are riding at. I'm still only going between 1 and 4 and sometimes 5 if I hold my left shifter (I just googled that terminology) so that I don't hear an annoying rattling noise the whole time.
I continue the same route as yesterday, although today feels different because I'm riding in my tank top the whole time because the suns out. I accidentally picked out a low cut tank and with the combination of my nicely fitted sports bra and the camelback pack strapped tight below my bosom, I must have given all those truckers and dock workers quiet the show. Today, as I pass by some of the same wretched stenches, I don't find myself as amused or laughing since I now realize I have to pass by at least 18 more times. I make a mental note to remember each location tomorrow and to try to hold my breath.
The waterfront by the aquarium and Pikes Market is really quiet today. Here is where I'll have to admit that I cheat a little every day. I take the elevator up to Lenora. Every time I do, I have visions of the Lacerca Elevator in Salvador, Brazil. I can't imagine trying to ride a bike there with all the cobble stone. The hill immediately after the elevator is still a pretty decent incline and I ride it in my lowest gear. Today I attempted the steepest part on the sidewalk since yesterday I realized that it's near impossible to ride up the incline on the cobblestone street. I still end up jumping off and walking the top half. I wonder when or if I will ever be able to ride the whole thing without walking.
The rest of my morning ride goes pretty routine.I feel extremely thankful to be out when the weather is so nice. At least it was nice. By the time my class ends at 3:30, the weather had turned overcast and pretty windy. My muscles have tensed up after my seven hours of sitting and I am feeling super sore. I want to call Phil and beg him to come pick me up, but he's already agreed to meet me at the bottom of Avalon so that I don't have to bike the huge last hill. Yesterday was my first day commuting by bike, but I didn't get the full experience since Phil picked me up after class because I had to go drive to school to close out my classroom since it was technically the last day for my students. Now I start to realize the craziness of this plan. It is one thing to ride 12 or 13 miles to school, but a totally other committment to ride back again in the same day! I hop back on and feel like most of my muscles can make it, but that the skin on my inner thighs is not happy with me for this decision.
I ride through campus, up and around to the bridge and finally down by the houseboats to South Lake Union. I'm doing pretty good until I get to Belltown and smell greasy fried food scents wafting through the streets from the hundreds of happy hour joints. My tummy doesn't really growl or rumble, but it starts kind of gnawing away at my will to keep biking. It was an unexpected walking into a theater and smelling the uberbuttery salty popcorn smell and now I have to have some urge. I stopped my bike for a minute to pull out my snack pack and eat a few almonds. I also call Phil and tell him to get ready to come get me. As if the scents coming from the Belltown restaurants weren't enough, now I'm riding right by the waterfront where there are smells of toasted vanilla almonds and Ivar's fish and chips. Now even though my whole body is aching more, I am trying to pedal as hard as I can on gear 4 so that I can get home for an early dinner.
I make it past the stadiums and ride the rode towards the lower bridge which starts to feel longer and longer. It's this rode at the end of the day that seems like I'm just riding a stationary bike at the gym. I finally get to the bridge and stop half way up even though I know it barely even can be considered an incline. My excuse is that I have to get more almonds (and since I'm stopped, I call Phil one more time to see if he'll be ready in five minutes or so). I devise a crafty way of hanging my snack pack around my handle bar with the velcro. I need to see if they have a handy cell phone carrier for bike handlebars because it'd be nice to see if someone's calling you, even if you don't answer and for me it'd be a way to watch the time and see if I need to pick up the pace to be on time in the mornings. I'm only minutes away from Phil and dinner and celebrating my third anniversary or so I thought. I get to the intersection at Marginal that's a five way light. A biker and I sit at the light for about ten minutes. It had to be! We also watch another biker ride with the cars at least five minutes before us since we are just sitting here waiting for the crosswalk lights. I am not doing that again!", I tell the other biker. "Yea, really!" he says. Us commuter bikers can have really in depth conversations.
I pedal under the bridge and turn onto the Alki bike path and my entire being starts to thank me as it sees Phil and our Arizona Beige F-150 waiting to haul my semi-pathetic self up the hill.
The site after crossing the lower West Seattle bridge
The top of the elevator to Lenora
The view from South Lake Union
A view of the houseboats...I just see the boring street view where they park their cars, take their dogs to crap, and bring their garbage
The bike path onto the EastLake Bridge...almost to UW!
and my destination for the day: Loew Hall!
I continue the same route as yesterday, although today feels different because I'm riding in my tank top the whole time because the suns out. I accidentally picked out a low cut tank and with the combination of my nicely fitted sports bra and the camelback pack strapped tight below my bosom, I must have given all those truckers and dock workers quiet the show. Today, as I pass by some of the same wretched stenches, I don't find myself as amused or laughing since I now realize I have to pass by at least 18 more times. I make a mental note to remember each location tomorrow and to try to hold my breath.
The waterfront by the aquarium and Pikes Market is really quiet today. Here is where I'll have to admit that I cheat a little every day. I take the elevator up to Lenora. Every time I do, I have visions of the Lacerca Elevator in Salvador, Brazil. I can't imagine trying to ride a bike there with all the cobble stone. The hill immediately after the elevator is still a pretty decent incline and I ride it in my lowest gear. Today I attempted the steepest part on the sidewalk since yesterday I realized that it's near impossible to ride up the incline on the cobblestone street. I still end up jumping off and walking the top half. I wonder when or if I will ever be able to ride the whole thing without walking.
The rest of my morning ride goes pretty routine.I feel extremely thankful to be out when the weather is so nice. At least it was nice. By the time my class ends at 3:30, the weather had turned overcast and pretty windy. My muscles have tensed up after my seven hours of sitting and I am feeling super sore. I want to call Phil and beg him to come pick me up, but he's already agreed to meet me at the bottom of Avalon so that I don't have to bike the huge last hill. Yesterday was my first day commuting by bike, but I didn't get the full experience since Phil picked me up after class because I had to go drive to school to close out my classroom since it was technically the last day for my students. Now I start to realize the craziness of this plan. It is one thing to ride 12 or 13 miles to school, but a totally other committment to ride back again in the same day! I hop back on and feel like most of my muscles can make it, but that the skin on my inner thighs is not happy with me for this decision.
I ride through campus, up and around to the bridge and finally down by the houseboats to South Lake Union. I'm doing pretty good until I get to Belltown and smell greasy fried food scents wafting through the streets from the hundreds of happy hour joints. My tummy doesn't really growl or rumble, but it starts kind of gnawing away at my will to keep biking. It was an unexpected walking into a theater and smelling the uberbuttery salty popcorn smell and now I have to have some urge. I stopped my bike for a minute to pull out my snack pack and eat a few almonds. I also call Phil and tell him to get ready to come get me. As if the scents coming from the Belltown restaurants weren't enough, now I'm riding right by the waterfront where there are smells of toasted vanilla almonds and Ivar's fish and chips. Now even though my whole body is aching more, I am trying to pedal as hard as I can on gear 4 so that I can get home for an early dinner.
I make it past the stadiums and ride the rode towards the lower bridge which starts to feel longer and longer. It's this rode at the end of the day that seems like I'm just riding a stationary bike at the gym. I finally get to the bridge and stop half way up even though I know it barely even can be considered an incline. My excuse is that I have to get more almonds (and since I'm stopped, I call Phil one more time to see if he'll be ready in five minutes or so). I devise a crafty way of hanging my snack pack around my handle bar with the velcro. I need to see if they have a handy cell phone carrier for bike handlebars because it'd be nice to see if someone's calling you, even if you don't answer and for me it'd be a way to watch the time and see if I need to pick up the pace to be on time in the mornings. I'm only minutes away from Phil and dinner and celebrating my third anniversary or so I thought. I get to the intersection at Marginal that's a five way light. A biker and I sit at the light for about ten minutes. It had to be! We also watch another biker ride with the cars at least five minutes before us since we are just sitting here waiting for the crosswalk lights. I am not doing that again!", I tell the other biker. "Yea, really!" he says. Us commuter bikers can have really in depth conversations.
I pedal under the bridge and turn onto the Alki bike path and my entire being starts to thank me as it sees Phil and our Arizona Beige F-150 waiting to haul my semi-pathetic self up the hill.
The site after crossing the lower West Seattle bridgeThe top of the elevator to LenoraThe view from South Lake Union A view of the houseboats...I just see the boring street view where they park their cars, take their dogs to crap, and bring their garbage The bike path onto the EastLake Bridge...almost to UW! and my destination for the day: Loew Hall!
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Please let me know what you thought as you read my post. Did you have a connection? Did you laugh? What were your "wows" and what were your "wonderings"?