My Day Starts Downhill

When we had a car, and thus, another transportation option, I could quickly think of reasons why I couldn't bike to work on that day even if I had planned to do so. It could be: I woke up late or I haven't prepared my bags for the ride or I haven't had time to make lunch or it's either breakfast or biking and there would definitely not be any hanging out on the front porch listening to the song birds while drinking coffee. No, not if I had to "prepare" for the long haul to work.

Now that we have made a choice to limit our options, the excuses are all just a bunch of noise. It is kind of like when you are going through a spell of depression and each daily task appears to you as a crazy and impossible feat and then you have a fantastic talk with a friend, go for a walk or read some wise, witty and powerful words, and the depression passes and those tasks that challenged you so much just days before become simple, even interesting again.

This is the difference between having the car and stating, "It would be great if I rode my bike more or used public transportation instead of driving," and really just going for it. The excuses, like the negative voice during a period of depression, ceases to control the perception of the moment and the trajectory of your decision making.

Bike with Sunrise

These days, I don't do extra hours of planning just to make sure I am prepared for the ride and the road downhill to work. I simply treat it as I did my car. I don't wake extra early, so I can get lunch made and breakfast eaten, I wake around the same time and still have time to sip coffee on our morning side porch. It was, in a way, a matter of changing my mind around biking...

Now, I am not saying that depression is as simple as changing one's mind. But, the days when one's mind is clear and one's soul feels whole again --those are the days that can help save one's life-- when one realizes the gap between one's thoughts and one's reality. Similarly, now that we have made this particular choice, we realize that the excuses around biking when having a car (a choice), were just that, excuses...they were not real. 

Night Rider

 Bike Powered Bike Lights

Tuesday, March 15 at 9 pm, Mindy and I set out from the Santa Fe Outlet Malls to catch the 9:54 NM Rail Runner back to Albuquerque.   The ride is only 2.5 miles, but that is not the real danger this road poses.   The quickest, perhaps only, bikable route is to pedal south on NM 14.   The route has a distinctly rural feel to it meaning that it is dark.    

Now I'm pretty fearless and have a sort of connection with my bike because of lots of hours riding in the dark, sometimes intoxicated, sometimes altered in some other way.   So I know to feel the road beneath me, follow the white stripe along the shoulder (when it's there) and just keep moving through loose gravel, over random pieces of junk that seems to accumulate on the sides of roads.   My biggest fear is puncturing a tire while riding over a nail, board, etc.   Basically, riding on shoulders suck.   I want to get over as far as a I can, but most shoulders, especially if the road isn't designated as a bike route is just inviting trouble.

NM 14 is not designed with bikes in mind.   The shoulders are littered with gravel and debris and the traffic moves much faster than the posted 55.   The road widens and shrinks, meaning some people will give bikers a wide berth at times while at others cut a biker off because they are angling for the on ramp of the highway.   And there are multiple, dark, on and off ramps that you have to go through while riding.   So basically, riding this road at night is just asking for disaster.   Even with my attached bike lights (pictured above) and another one that is attached to my stem, the light is really only helping speeding drivers see me because they certainly aren't enough to ride by on this stretch of road.

Thus, it was with relief that John Flax of Theater Grottesco stressed that taking Mindy and I to the train stop was not a problem.  He has a truck and goes that way to get home.   We gladly took him up on his offer on Wednesday.

I wish I could point to a better solution than "find a ride" to the train station, but unless the state does some major improvements, this road, especially at night, is way too dangerous.

NM Rail Runner

So Mindy and I took the New Mexico Rail Runner up to Santa Fe for a workshop at Theater Grottesco.   The workshop was great and we navigated the rather smooth ride:  loading our bikes on the train, finding a seat, enjoying the view, moving up to the top when more seats opened up (the Bernalillo stop), and getting off at NM 599 (the Santa Fe Relief Route) and rode the quick jaunt on NM 14 to the Outlet Malls where the workshop was held.


I just couldn't get past the feeling on how easy the whole thing was.  It just didn't feel "right."  I guess I've grown so accustomed to having to find my own route and not really counting on more than just a relatively unobstructed highway trip in my own car at my own pace and arrangements that the trip felt more "special" than "ordinary."   


This feeling needs further elaboration and development.  I guess what I'm trying to say is how many train trips, how many arrangements will I have to make without a car to get rid of the feeling that I am really only "experimenting" in this carless thing?  When will this feel normal and riding/driving a car feel "special" or somehow foreign?

April Fools Day

Back in August we thought it would be fantastic if we could make it without a car until April As April Fool's Day approaches, we realize we have been fooled --fooled by the idea that in this society it would be a struggle, or near impossible, to live our life without a car (or two). We thought making it to April would be some major accomplishment. We thought we would be heading toward that "April Fools Day" finish line --crawling and yearning for four wheels-- and, yet, here we are, biking with no current plans to get off of two wheels!

I love biking. Maybe because it's low tech? Maybe because it limits my options, so it urges me to think more carefully about the choices I make? Maybe its because it offers a release after an intense day at work (getting in a car while tired and frustrated is a liability)? Maybe it is because it is one less "thing" into which I have to worry about pouring time, money and energy? Maybe it is because I am making a smaller impact upon this earth? Maybe it is because I am10 years old again tooling around town, and proud of it? Maybe it's because the price of gas goes up and I barely notice (except for the occasional airline fare to go visit the family in Illinois)? Maybe it's because it has given my partner and I (currently childless) a joint project where we are able to learn and grow together (he is also much better about the mechanics...which I am working on!)? Maybe it's because it was something we only "talked" about years ago and had not quite believed until the universe conspired to show us how it could be done? Maybe it is because I want my actions to match my life philosophy as much as possible? I don't want to continue make excuses about "uncomfortable changes" simply because it is not the norm. So maybe I am ready to act on wisdom of those who came before me and be the change I want to see in the world?

Drive-Throughs Have Got to Go.

Why wouldn't you serve this guy in your Drive-through?

It's One in the morning, you're 4 miles from home and you're hungry.


Had this been a normal Saturday outing, you would've headed up to the Frontier or Pita Pit and got your grub on.  But, since you're biking, why not just go home and eat then; both places are just a little bit further east so getting to them is about the same as actually going home.

But you want food.  Now.   You're hungry now.


Hey.  Doesn't McDonald's drive through stay open until 2 AM?   Yes.

But being on a bike does not mean you will actually trip the sensor so that he'll take your order.  This takes a bit to figure out, so you roll around to the window.


He still doesn't notice you and continues to flush hot water through the shake machine.   Finally, he comes up and opens the window.

"Can I get some food?"

"We can't serve you.   McDonald's policy doesn't let us serve bikers in the drive-through."

"But your dining room isn't open..."

"I'm sorry.  McDonald's policy."

"Oh well.  It's your business you're losing."

He shrugs.

You pedal home and heat up a bowl of chile.

How many other businesses or services are designed with  drivers, just drivers, in mind?   Fast Food Restaurants?   Drive-up bank Windows?  Drive-up cigarette shops?  In the quest, to reorient society so that it favors bikers and pedestrians, drive-up windows either have to change or go.

Poetry & Beer

Wow! What an incredibly warm night to be stuck inside Blackbird Buvette, but we really didn't plan on it being this warm.  So I loaded up the music stand, a mike stand, my laptop, a binder, and various cords into my cart, attached it to my fixie and away I went.

But another Poetry & Beer is not the purpose of this post.   The purpose is to talk about the ride back.

My Route Home

What I didn't anticipate was in how much drag the cart, unloaded even, is on my ride.   So as I was making my way from the low point (the underpass right by the Convention Center) up MLK to finally rest at the underpass at the highway, I had to stand up and pound on the pedals.

Off comes the jacket.   I'm sweating and its 11:30 at night.

The lesson:  no matter how loaded the cart is, you need to use the mountain bike  when you're coming home from downtown.   There's a reason for a derailleur.   I know I talked about this before, but I was assuming that was because the cart was loaded.   Not in this case.

Spring is Here!

Weather Today

So it looks like we made it through winter.

I know. I know.  It's just now March and New Mexico springs can still pack a wollop. I know. I know.   The calendar still says it's winter for 20 more days.

But, at the risk of pissing off the weather gods (who would that be anyway?   Mother Nature?)

So what does spring mean?  

Well, it generally means that the nights are still cold and the days are warm.   So I'm planning on either banking on short rides without the warm gear or taking off layers.

It also generally means that I won't be riding in the dark as much.   But, I put down a chunk of change on this:
Bike Lights so taking off my lights and having to replace the batteries every two weeks is no longer necessary.

It still, means, however, having to wrestle with the Lead and Coal Improvement Project which still has about a year for completion, but looks like they are almost done with the area around my place of employment .  They've finally opened up some North/South roads through the construction. For the past few months I've been riding north/south on Yale or University and both roads suck for bikers.

Hoping to get out on this in the next couple of weeks, but have to look at what the possible trails look like.  I know the mountains will still be a mess.

So, see you on the road and hope you see me.
Don