Tank 313-4 April 2K12 (Plus a Sneaky Morning Bike Ride)

So this morning I refueled the Mighty Corolla at a Fas Mart, but not the convenient one near my house.

I went to the Fas Mart by the library.

Gas there was $3.859 per gallon, and I put 10.954 gallons in the tank after going 428.3 miles. So my mileage was a good 39.10 mpg.

Today was unusual in that I had the grand opportunity to drive one daughter to school today. Because of that, I could sleep in a little bit and also go out on a morning ride in the neighborhood. I only went about twelve miles, but every little bit helps as I press towards my goal of riding my bike more than I commute to and from work in my car.

I have ridden my bike just over 1,000 miles so far for the year. In contrast, I have driven my car over 5,000 miles during this same time. Perhaps years from now I can make it a resolution to ride my bike for more miles than I commute in my car, or drive overall. But that's another problem for another time.

Indeed, the circumstances that required me to drive my daughter to school this morning also compelled me to leave to go home from work early yesterday, so my commute time yesterday was a speedy 38 minutes.

And then this morning during my normal commute time, an HUGE accident slowed everybody down to a crawl. Coworkers who normally arrived with a 30 minute commute took an hour and ten minutes to get to work today. Due to my daughter's efforts, my commitment to drive her to school allowed me to avoid that nightmare. I drove to work at the tail end of the hysteria and my trip was only about ten minutes slower than normal.

So that's nice.

So we're five days into April and I'm a little more than 25 hours short on the bike time. There are three more commute trips in my work week, then three days off for a weekend. Heading into next week I ought to maintain this gap if not gain on it a little.

And as I look forward to the 100-mile ride I signed up for on the 21st of this month, my confidence in meeting my annual goal is rising. Now I can look forward to the office move in September, hoping it happens sooner, and cursing every day that it is delayed because the hope I have for achieving my goal hinges on the office move happening in September.