Observations upon riding my bike to work...

I like it.

At first I was trying to hone in and reduce the amount of time it took me to get from point A to point B. I’ve changed my route rather much since I commuted by bike last fall. However, I had limited myself to a certain degree by taking those roads which I was most comfortable with. I’ve since become slightly more daring and have reduced my bike in time from 1 hour to 40 minutes which is kind of exciting. However, I have now found that given the prospect of a new yard (that’s ours all ours!) and a new home I am sight-seeing quite a bit on my way to work (read…dawdling). I’ve made up for the sight-seeing by taking the hill, and it’s not so bad. In fact, when I can make the light at the bottom it’s quite thrilling.

My sight-seeing has afforded me views of interesting landscaping (lots of people are digging up their grass….) and has also given me a route that is perhaps less used by others. I do join the mainstream by hopping on the east bank esplanade and having a bit of a bike stroll (if you will) along the river. So far, not a day has gone by that I haven’t seen the local police either arresting or harassing (I mean chatting) with the vagrant community that calls the esplanade home. That and some entertaining graffiti (highlights include the witty: “bros not hoes” and “call your deadbeat dad he still loves you”) make this portion of my commute feel seedy and scandalous…mwhahahaha. Not really, but it’s just a strong contrast coming off of Willamette Blvd.

The best thing about my morning commute is that Widmer usually has a boil going and it smells terrific.