TransAmerica Bicycle Trail - 2013

To everyone who reads this, and I know there’s only about 3 of you, I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year.

I’m not making any new years resolutions this year. Zip, Zilch. Nadda. (did I spell that right?) I’m thinking we should make the kind of changes we usually do at new years when we see the need for change not when we first start putting the wrong year on our checks. BTW, does everyone else do that too?

I’ve been chastised for not keeping this blog up to date more often. My response is, “but nothing interesting happens to me while riding.” Then I hear, “So, write it anyway.” Well, here goes…

Pedaled to work, pedaled home. Pedaled to work, pedaled home. Pedaled to work, pedaled home.

That’s 51 miles. Add that to my total and I have a grand total of 1419.1 miles for 2008. All that in just under 5 months. Not bad for a start, but I did expect more… I think I’m going to have to find other places to go besides work. Feel free to comment with your sugestions of where I should go. Be nice now.

So, I’m riding down Franklin Blvd. in Glenwood when I hear someone yell, “beaned” and I feel a thump in the back as a bunch of guys pass me in a p/u. As naturally slow reacting as I am I never even flinched so I doubt they got the full excitement they were looking for. I stopped about 100 yards down the road and took off my jacket to see what hit me. Imagine that, A bean boritto splat on my back. How clever.

Think how incredibly brave these guys are though. To bean a guy in the back, after dark, when he’s on a bike and you are passing him at 35 mph… I can’t imagine the set these guys must have.

Oh well… add another 24.9 miles to my total. That includes the rest of this week including a trip from Springfield Walmart to Arctic for some work this Saturday.

Grand total: 1368.1 miles

For anyone new to perpetualpanic.com you can get a feel for what this is all about by reading the the early post, “setting goals and making plans“.

Basically this cronicles my progress as I get in shape to ride my bicycle across the United States. I intend to make the epic journey in 2013.

OK, that’s not good. I’m sitting here, Monday evening, after riding the standard 17 mile commute and my body hurts. Legs, butt, and back are  all unhappy now. I guess that’s what I get for slacking all last week.

Add that 17 miles and my total is 1343.2 miles.

Last week was back and forth to work every day except friday. Friday Cherie picked me up so we could go to dinner for the middle kid’s birthday. At the end of that week I had a grand total of 1317.7 miles

This week, ending Saturday 12/20, was pritty short. I only rode home from work one day. Most of the week there was snow on the roads in the morning and ice on them in the evenings. The one evening I did think it was warm enough and the roads were clear enough to ride I got to within 1.5 miles of home when the roads turned to sparkly ice. That was fun. I wasn’t worried to much about falling, it was the getting run over by a car afterwards as I flopped around like a fish in the traffic lane that had me concerned.

But. I made it. Add 8.5 to my total for a grand total of 1326.2 miles.

Well, I did get that 17 miles in Saturday but didn’t get the extra 3.5 to make one hundred miles for the week. Oh well, 96.5 isn’t bad. It beats my average lately anyway.

Grand Total: 1241.2 miles