Second ride, going places I've never been

Date: 5/7/08

Second bike route: 10.9 miles, 53 minutes

Wow, that was quite a trip. I think I’ll call this one “Giant Loop,” seeing as I just made a big loop around Rolla. It’s about as close to going around the city limits as I can get without going on random side roads. My butt hurts a lot from not having a proper seat (insert joke about me being butt raped). I need to get a seat cushion *mental note to self*. It has a few hills, namely the one going up to the hospital, the one up to Hwy 72, the one up past Wal-Mart (which was real bad coming off of the previous hill), the one going up 72 back to Pine Tree road, and a small one on Old St. James, but I think that one was bad only because I had to stop there. Reason being that when I was going on Old St. James, my chain fell of and got stuck between the sprocket and the frame (note to self, get some washers to put on the axel to keep this from happening again). I couldn’t pedal, and the last time that happened, I had to walk the bike home (the last time was when I was coming back from TJ after a meeting with the future TJ Sr. Leadership, so it wasn’t that bad) and I didn’t feel like walking 2 miles back to the Quad. Thankfully, I got it unstuck and went on my way. I covered a lot of road I've never been on before. I learned the south side of town on Lions Club drive is really nice. I wish the clouds weren’t out so that I could see the stars; there were no street lights so I think I could have seen them real well. Of course no street lights meant I needed my headlight. I guess I’ll find out soon if I need to invest in rechargeable batteries or not. I really enjoyed this ride, and I need to do it again on a clear night.

Night time bike rides begin!

Okay, so I've started doing night time bike rides. Why at night you ask? Because there are fewer cars and I can ride on the main roads without fear. My rule is that it has to be after midnight before I go bike. It's nice out, and I don't have to worry about the sun. Besides, I like having the moon and stars out better. Anyway, my first ride actually took place before I started my blog, but I wanted to put it here anyway.


The format will have the date, distance, time it took me, and my observations/experiences on the ride. If you think you can ride a bike faster than me, I don't care. This is so I can track my improvement, not compare myself to others, as well as document cool routes to keep going on. The red dot is where I start from, namely the Quad. The blue line indicates the route, and if something interesting happens, I'll mark it as well. Note that whatever the day is, it means that I went out from midnight-ish to 3-ish as that day was starting. I use Google Maps to calculate distances and make my maps.



Date: 5/2/08

First bike route: 6.7 miles, 35 minutes






Huff, huff, I’m out of shape. Now I know why I started riding my bike again: it’s fun and it will help get me back into shape. For this first ride, I basically started at the Quad and rode wherever I felt like going. I’ll call it “Rolla City Tour.” I figured going to Forum would help me get an idea of how much I wanted to do, so that’s where I went first. Okay, so I only rode by the movie theater to make sure Iron Man was playing so that I could see it this weekend. Also, I always wanted to go down Bishop, so I did. I like not having to worry about traffic. I dodged the Bishop and 72 traffic light since I didn’t feel like messing with it. I’ll deal with them another time. I have to remember that Walnut is nothing but hill until it ends: long, gradual hill, which I think I dislike more than a steep one. I actually went to Schumann Park to see if they had adequate water hydrants for the staff social tomorrow, but they only had weak water fountains. Then I went home after deciding it was getting late and I was getting tired. Next time I’ll try for a longer ride.