I
chose to ride my mountain bike this morning since there was still some
slick spots - its about 25°. I also have 2 road bikes
I can ride, including my new Gunnar Sport bike that I love riding and my 25 year
old Trek that I take on messy days. Each bike has racks and fenders,
and lights. |
The
sun is coming up but its a frosty morning! |
|
I
enjoy my route to work, which goes through some of Wichita's most
interesting neighborhoods. Also, most of my route is on a fairly
lightly traveled one-way street which makes traffic easy to deal with.
Its about 7 miles each way, which takes 20-30 minutes. |
|
The
control panel. I have a clip-on 10 watt headlight that I move from
bike to bike, along with the front LED blinky. Each bike also has a
fixed headlight. I like redundancy. The lights run on rechargeable
batteries, or a generator on the road bikes. |
|
2nd
street through Old Town. Even going through downtown the traffic is
not too bad. |
|
Right
along Riverside park, one of Wichita's nicest parks. |
|
Along
the river. There's usually lots of birds wading here. |
|
| Didn't even see it
when I shot the picture, but here's a gull on the bridge railing. I
see lots of herons and egrets along here, plus I've seen kingfishers,
wood ducks, hawks and others. |
|
| Another
beautiful view of the river. On the other side is Cowtown. This
stretch of road is one of my favorites in town, a long curvy bit with
great pavement. |
|
|
| I
cross these tracks and ride the block of gravel each day, so I'm glad
to have heavy-duty tires. |
|
| Trees for Life is
in an old school building, a great place to work. |
|
| Indoor
parking, a real plus for commuting. |
|
| I go
from left to right in about 10 minutes. I have a great place to change
and store a towel plus some work clothes, it really is a perfect
situation for cycle commuting. |
|
| The
alien landing zone, some public art near work. One of the treats of
cycling every day is the awareness of the seasons, the time. I really
enjoy riding at sunset. |
|
| More
public art, this bridge is beautifully designed. It leads to a series
of parks and bike paths that are nice to ride. |
|
| A view
towards downtown. I don't always ride the bike path, but it was such a
pretty evening I wanted to take my time. |
|
| The
picture on the right shows my front lights, I also have 2 rear lights
along with reflectors front and back. They may still hit me, but it'd
have to be because they were aiming for me, not because they didn't
see me. |
|
| Riding a bike
every day changes the way I view nature and the seasons. It sometimes
seems like it'd be hard to ride in the weather, but with the right
equipment and frame of mind, its not bad. Layers and a sense of
gratitude for each day get me through even these cold days.
I also ride to
the store, using a cycle trailer that used to pull the kids around.
Its getting to where it feels funny driving a car anymore.
|
|
Home