As I passed the IKEA right near my office, I waited at a traffic light next to a gold pickup truck with Georgia license plates and a large "G" in the rear window (for Georgia Bulldogs, I concluded, after seeing the matching bumper sticker).
18 miles later, near the Stafford County Courthouse, I saw the same truck.
HA!
So my two-hour ride home was fun on my bike, and although it would have taken the same amount of time in my car, no doubt I'd have been clenching my butt cheeks and gnashing my teeth the entire time. Indeed, for a couple of miles (not in a row, but spread over the length of Route 1) I found myself pedaling faster than the stopped/walking speed cars.
It was great.
And then early Saturday morning, I rode my bike back up to the office to I could retrieve the Mighty Corolla. So I got another long ride in as well!
So I had some good rides over the weekend, and as of this moment, I am a shade under 33 hours short in my goal of riding my bike more time than commuting in my car this year.
Full disclosure: on Saturday morning as I neared my office, traffic was increasing and since it was early, the cars were speeding along Route 1 at a high rate of speed, and some of them seemed not to see me, or maybe just wanted to give me a wake up call and pass by me very closely. At those moments, I did wonder to myself why exactly I was doing such a thing.
But then I got close to my office and meandered around the large empty parking lot of Potomac Mills Mall, weaving and swerving to feel the bike swoop around curvy turns, and I remembered: THIS IS WHY. IT'S FUN.
Shoulda waited til Tuesday morning to bike to work. That way US1 would have been JAMMED and no one could speed along as they did Saturday. Perhaps a black t-shirt with flourescent orange lettering reading DANGER C4 EXPLOSIVES! would encourage people to give you more leeway.
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