MARKING THE MILES

A new friend of mine Tammie Gitt has an excellent blog called living3368 which appears in my blogroll to the right. She posted a great reflection last week that I am re-posting for your benefit. You will want to explore her blog for other creative insights. - Steve

The trip odometer on my Rockhopper turned over 65 last Sunday on the way home from the symphony concert.

That may not sound terribly exciting to recreational cyclists. It wouldn’t have been exciting to me a couple of years ago when I would put in 65 miles in a single weekend — and occasionally on a single ride — on my road bike.

What makes it exciting is that represents 65 miles that I didn’t use my car. It’s six miles roundtrip to church on Sundays. Three miles roundtrip to visit my Grammy. A couple of miles back to Target or over to the grocery store to pick up only as many items as I could fit in a backpack.

Since I drive a Corolla with excellent gas mileage, it’s not like I’m saving much money. With the current price of gas, I’ve saved about $5 in two months or so.

But the experience is worth so much more … good and bad:

• I’ve learned that my town is full of false flats. Nearly every road has a slight, slight incline that’s all but imperceptible to someone driving a car.

• I know the joy of seeing a light turn green from half a block away and cranking a mountain bike with knobby tires up to 21 miles per hour to speed through.

• On the flip side, I’m proud of the fact that I have learned to soft pedal in such a way as to reach the red light just as it turns green.

• Along those lines, I can now briefly balance my bike so that I stop at stop signs without putting a foot down.

• I’ve been frustrated by drivers who turn right in front of me.

• I’ve been encouraged by drivers who share the road.

• I can tell you that there’s one store —ONE — that I frequent that actually has a bike rack. Any time I go anywhere else I need to chain my bike to a sign or pole.

• Because I clean up a little after I arrive at church and before I take my seat in the sanctuary, I can tell you who usually needs to use the restroom before the service begins.

• Just ask me which roads need repaired!

• I know that it’s just unnatural how many people on a certain street own Mini Coopers.

And this is just the beginning for the season. If the weather holds out, I can keep using the bike for errands well into October and maybe November. I’d like to keep going, but I’m not crazy about cold weather and it gets dark too early in the winter to be very practical.