Outdoor Adventures | 2008 edition

This was the year we worked on our house and did a lot of bike commuting. With the economy in the toilet, it seemed like a good year to spend on two wheels instead of driving our cars everywhere.


January
First Bike Ride of the New Year | Charlotte, NC
AND First Climb of the New Year | Charlotte, NC

March
My Introduction to Bike Commuting | Charlotte, NC

April
Neighborhood Bike Ride | Charlotte, NC

May
Bike Commuting Continues | Charlotte, NC
Wipe Out | Charlotte, NC

June
First Alone Bike Commute | Charlotte, NC 

August
Perseid Meteor Shower | Charlotte, NC 

September
Turkey Creek Campground and Panther Creek Trail | Almond, NC
Biking for Groceries | Charlotte, NC

October
9 Day No Car Experiment | Charlotte, NC
Night Riding | Charlotte, NC
Blood Clot and a Hospital Stay | Charlotte, NC

9 Day "No Car" Experiment

Here is a breakdown of how we managed with our "No Car" Experiment.

Thursday, Sept 25:
Morning: Daniel rode motorcycle to work. Cheree drove car 1.5 miles to bus stop, rode bus downtown, walked 0.75 miles to work.
Afternoon: Daniel rode motorcycle home. Co-worker drove Cheree to bus stop, rode bus back to car. Drove 1.5 miles home.
Miles driven in car: 3

Friday, Sept 26:
Morning: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle to work - cold and raining lightly.
Afternoon: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle home - raining hard, did not see any gas stations open on ride home.
Miles driven in car: 0

Saturday, Sept 27:
Daniel rode motorcycle looking for gas around town - no luck (car is on fumes at this point). Daniel and Cheree rode bicycles to Cotswald for lunch at Chipotle and to pick up milk for breakfast.
Miles driven in car: 0
Miles biked (C&D): 7

Sunday, Sept 28:
Daniel rode motorcycle looking for gas around town - found some in SouthPark. Called Cheree to drive to get in gas line. We had to wait 20 minutes to fill up (this was early in morning). Rode motorcycle to church. Biked to Walmart to buy groceries for week. Rode motorcycle to life group.
Miles driven in car: 10
Miles biked (C&D): 8

Monday, Sept 29:
Morning: Daniel rode motorcycle to work. Cheree biked 1.5 miles to bus stop. Could not get on the Express Bus due to it having too many bikes on it. Waited for the regular bus. Dropped off at transit station downtown, bike 1.5 miles to work (late for meeting - oops).
Afternoon: Daniel rode motorcycle home. Cheree biked 0.75 miles to bus stop. Rode bus most of the way home. Biked 1.5 miles from bus stop to home. Cheree drove to Rock Hill, SC to teach class at York Tech.
Miles driven in car: 40
Miles biked (C): 5.25

Tuesday, Sept 30:
Morning: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle to work (wanted to get home at a reasonable time because my brother was coming to visit).
Afternoon: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle home.
Miles driven in car: 0

Wednesday, Oct 1:
Morning: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle to work.
Afternoon: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle home. Cheree drove to Rock Hill, SC to teach class at York Tech.
Miles driven in car: 40

Thursday, Oct 2:
Morning: Daniel rode motorcycle to work. Cheree drove car - had to drive car because I needed to go somewhere during lunch.
Afternoon: Daniel went and worked at service project from 4-9, then rode motorcycle home. Cheree drove home. After dinner, Cheree drove to pick up movie and get coffee with visiting guests.
Miles driven in car: 17

Friday, Oct 3:
Morning: Daniel and Cheree carpooled to work - had to drive car because we were meeting friends for dinner.
Afternoon: Daniel went home at noon to take a nap and to pick up our trailer. He came to pick me up at 5:15. We drove to Concord Mills to meet friends and to do some shopping. Had to have car with trailer to pick up our tile saw that we had lent to friends.
Miles driven in car: 50

Nine Day Recap
Total Miles By Car: 160
80 of those miles were for teaching and not to be held against us. So if we do not count those, we only drove the car 80 miles unnecessarily in the past 9 days. This means we only used about 3.5 gallons of gas unnecessarily.

I did not include miles ridden on motorcycle. This comes to a total of around 180 miles and 3 gallons of gas used.

Total Miles Biked: 20.25 for Cheree and 15 for Daniel.

Bike Log

You may be wondering how Daniel and I function with just one car between us. Here is an example of what happens when Daniel has to go in early to work AND he has an all day seminar in a different part of town.

5:30 a.m. Daniel bikes to work.
7:45 a.m. Cheree leaves the house to drive to LandDesign with a bike loaded on the bike rack.
8:15 a.m. Cheree picks up Daniel and we add his bike to the bike rack.
8:20 a.m. Daniel drops Cheree and bike off at Enventys then drives to University for his seminar.
3:00 p.m. Daniel drives home after his seminar (with his bike still locked to the bike rack).
6:00 p.m. Cheree leaves downtown and bikes the 10 miles home.

So that is how we do it...

Comments on today's ride:

• It was extremely hot to be riding. The kind of hot where you can feel the heat radiating up off of the road.
• I almost got hit by a car - the driver was not paying attention.
• I made it home in exactly an hour - this is a new record for me.

Biking Log

Here's a clear map:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/ride/united-states/nc/charlotte/884506610284

 

Tonight was the first time that I biked home alone. Daniel had something come up and had to go home early. So my choices were to bike alone, ride the bus home or wait for him to come pick me up.

I have biked the route often enough with Daniel that I decided that it was something I could do alone. Thankfully I didn't get lost (the route is mostly through neighborhoods that wind their way through Charlotte).

In the hour that I had to ride I had a lot of time to think. I have come to the conclusion that I really love biking. I remember the when we first bought my bike and Daniel took me on my first real ride. To be honest, it was petrifying. The entire trail was gravel with steep hills that were tough to go up and had me scared-to-death coming down. I grasped the brakes the entire time and the gravel made me feel like I was going to crash at any moment.

Since then, I have biked countless dirt trails and last summer, Daniel even convinced me to ride on the Cherohala Skyway (my first real attempt at road biking with skinny tires). I never imagined that I would be able to go close to 40 mph on a bike, coming down a hill. It was terrifying and thrilling all wrapped into one.

Today, as I rode, I thought about the freedom that riding my bike brings. The power that it takes to push up the hills. The feeling of flying when you are just coasting along or rushing down a hill.

I am not always crazy about traffic or the random people that feel the need to honk or yell at you. But overall, there is a peacefulness that comes with riding. It was nice to have an hour to just enjoying being outside with my thoughts.

The images aren't the greatest, but they show the route I take to get home. It meanders through many neighborhoods and parts of Charlotte. The red line denotes my route - starting at work, cutting through the Panther's Stadium. Making my way down Trade to CPCC. Going around the hospital. Cutting over across Randolph, through Myers Park. Coming out briefly at Providence Rd before cutting back to Wendover on Vernon. Taking Wendover to a short ride on Randolph, before going up Sharon Amity to Addison and finally making my way into the Stonehave/Waverly Hall neighborhoods. All of this in about 10-ish miles, one way.

My first wipe out...

This morning on the way to catch the bus, I took my first real spill. I have come close in the past - mountain biking, there have been numerous times I have banged handle bars, pedals, knees and elbows on trees as I rode by. There have even been some almost-spills. But this is the first, entire body and bike laying on the ground kind of spill.

It happened as I was reaching my bus stop. I could see the bus ahead getting ready to make the turn to where the bus stop was. I was pedaling furiously hoping to make it. I was also hoping the normal group would be there so it would give me a chance to make it.

As I rounded the corned, I realized there were no people. So I decided to try to get off of the sidewalk and cut through the dirt and mulch, hoping the bus driver would see me. Of course, I had skinny tires on my bike, not my big knobby ones for mountain biking.

So instead of making a smooth transition, I immediately found myself and the bike in a heap on the ground. I have some bruises and road rash (I guess you would call it mulch rash since I was not on the road).

I was laying there as the bus driver turned the corner. He passed the stop so I just laid there not sure of what to do. Then I saw him stop. So I jumped up, grabbed my bike and hopped on the bus.

After riding into town and regaining my composure. I went up to the front of the bus to wait for my stop. I was the last one off, so I made small talk with the bus driver. I asked him if he had seen me fall. He apologized to me and told me that he had seen me fall and that his first reaction was to laugh! I told him it was ok, b/c I probably would have laughed as well.

Bike Commute Log

Yesterday Daniel and I rode our bikes to work together. Biking had been on hold for me because of teaching, but I am finally getting around to doing it.

We rode to the bus stop together, about a mile, and rode the express bus into downtown - this saves us from getting sweaty in the mornings. I went to the Y to shower and change and biked about half a mile from the Y to work.

Around 5 p.m. Daniel called to ask me what I thought about riding in lightening... we both looked at the radar and figured the storm was heading north and we were biking south so we would be okay.

I met Daniel at LandDesign and we started out of town. We meandered over to East Blvd and decided to stop at Big Daddy's to eat dinner. This was a good choice since it soon started to pour and thunder and lightening. We waited out the storm and once the lightening had passed, we got on our way.

Riding in the rain was cold, but thankfully the rain only lasted for about 10 minutes of the ride - enough for us to get soaked.

I had my first encounter with road rage. This was rather unpleasant. A guy in a vehicle screamed a bunch of obscenities at me as he drove by - something to the effect of "get out of the road." The guy must have been INSANE as the road had 2 lanes going in each direction and I was in no way hogging the road and there was NO TRAFFIC in the road. I pay my taxes for roads, just like he does AND that section of road actually had a bike lane. It is unfortunate that some drivers are so stupid.

Overall the ride went well. With all of our meandering, our ride home was probably just under 12 miles.

On a completely unrelated note, 7 engineers at Daniel's company were laid off yesterday due to the company not having enough work. Thankfully Daniel was not among the 7, but this has us a bit shaken.

Bike Commute Log

Commute to Work:
43ºF when we left the house. 

Biked 1.5 miles to bus stop. 

Road Express bus into downtown. 

Biked 0.5 miles to work. 

30 min.
 

Commute Home:
70º+F 

6-ish miles to Cotswold where we stopped to eat dinner. 

Another 5-ish miles home. 

1.5+ hrs (longer because of the stop to eat dinner and split a blizzard at DQ).

Bike Commute Log

Did not bike commute today - too tired...

Bike Commute Log

Commute to Work:
32ºF when we left the house

12 miles

1+ hr
 

Commute Home:
60ºF

12 miles 1 hr
 

Exhausted when I got home - perhaps due to lack of any kind of exercise in the last 6 weeks. Went straight to bed after eating dinner and a shower.

Prepping For Monday Morning Bike Commute

We have spent the last hour getting me ready for my first bike commute. I am a little nervous as it is supposed to be 32ºF in the morning. Not excited about the cold, but I am excited to exercising again and this is a good way to get to spend some extra time with Daniel. Hopefully all will go well.

Bike Commuting

Daniel started commuting to work on his bicycle in April. Since then he biked more than 1000 miles and saved us a lot on gas expenses and general wear and tear on our car.

Now that I will be starting my new job downtown we started discussing the possibility of me bike commuting with him. In an effort to see if I was even up for it, we decided to make the ride this afternoon.

My new company is only 1 mile from Daniel's. So we got on our bikes and made the 10 mile ride past Land Design and on to Enventys. Going in took about an hour and was mostly downhill and a pretty enjoyable ride. Coming home we took a slightly different route and it took just over an hour.

Doing the ride back to back (20+ miles) really wasn't too bad. Some time around mile 15-ish I started to get some numbness in my feet and soreness in my tail. But as for riding one way, I am pretty sure I can handle it and will probably start riding with Daniel. I will probably wait at least a few days to get comfortable at my job and make sure that there is a place to park my bike. I am looking forward to the extra exercise and Daniel thinks we will save about $9/day on gas by not driving 2 separate vehicles. Even when we don't ride our bikes, we can still carpool.

One of our friends told us that we should get a tandem bike to commute on! I think we will hold off on that suggestion, at least for now...

Daniel's Latest Accident

Thankfully this is nothing major (like the chainsaw accident) and it isn't costing us anything (like having to buy another car after he totaled the Altima, or his weekend in the hospital for the chainsaw incident or numerous visits to the doc for stuff in Daniel's eyes). However it did leave his bike unrideable and I had to go pick him up last night.

Here is the account (based on what he told me):

First of all, Daniel is fine. He was going around a turn and his rear tire slid out from under him - he managed to stay on the bike through the turn, aim it at the sidewalk and dismount over the handle bars into the grass. The rear wheel was really bent up and he could not ride it home. The wheel is unusable now, but thankfully he has a spare. He said that an older woman walking her dog asked him if he was ok and he said he was fine and then she told him that that was the most beautiful accident she had ever seen!

rain

it has rained every day this week, which is a wonderful thing (except now the grass will grow and we will then have to cut it...). i have my office window open and i have been enjoying the pitter patter of the rain interrupted occasionally by the roll of thunder.

daniel had to ride his bike home in a down pour yesterday. he was completely drenched when he got home. i was a little jealous. sometimes i have the urge to go stomping through puddles. i think one of the reasons that i love backpacking so much is that you are out in the elements... rain... snow... or sun. it doesn't matter, you are completely enveloped in it and i love that.

This note is all about Daniel - since he doesn't write notes, I wanted to share about his insanely cold morning commute. The following is an excerpt from an email Daniel sent to me:

Next time I am wearing wool socks and ski goggles…..

Note the 17-27mph headwind that left me outside in these conditions for even longer than normal (50 minutes). Headwind was absolutely ridiculous. Felt like I was towing a parachute. It is nice to look like a Christmas tree though. A couple cars stopped in their tracks and stared till I rolled by.

The comment about looking like a Christmas tree was due to the fact that he was decked out with multiple blinking lights on the front and back of his bike as well as on his helmet. He also had on a bright yellow vest. When we left this morning, all I could see of him were his eyes because he was completely bundled up from head to foot.