day 6: i always did love ice cream sandwiches

Another successful day with no problems. People around my office are starting to act surprised that I am still riding my bike to work. I told one "gentleman" on day 1 that I was going to bike to work every day of August. He just sort of nodded and said "ok." Today he came by my desk, looking surprised:

him: You still riding that thing? (he's from NYC)

me: Sure am - it's still August isn't it?

him: Huh...I thought you were kidding.

I think I am about to settle in a groove for the next 2-3 weeks. I have almost tricked my brain into thinking that anytime I need to go somewhere, my bike will get me there. It's amazing how fast a routine can shift. Getting into my car to go to work would feel like trying to throw a baseball with my left hand (I'm a righty). Bike commuting really feels like the norm now! It's pretty neat.

Today was another hot one though. Another afternoon of triple digit heat and no clouds. Thankfully, my commute goes Westward in the morning and Eastward in the afternoon, so I never have to ride facing the sun. I emptied an entire water bottle on the ride home just by pouring the water on my head at traffic stops.

If you don't already know about this, there is a water bottle that you can buy at just about any bike shop, made by Polar, that has a built in insulated sleeve. The bottle itself will fit in any standard bottle-holder, but it certainly does a good job of keeping your water cold. It is a necessity in someplace like Arizona. I wasn't using mine today and in the 35 minutes it took me to get home, my water had gone from fresh-out-of-the-water-fountain-cold to a tepid warmth. This water bottle is certainly worth the $10 it costs. If you don't want to spring for another water bottle (less consumption is more, right?) a trick you might not think about: wrap a water bottle with aluminum foil. It will still fit in your bottle holder, and it provides a decent layer of insulation.

This image gives you a good idea of the width of roads I get to ride on my route. They don't always have the designated bike lane as shown here, but almost my entire ride is along roads of about this width. It seems as though I am pretty lucky to get a route this wide. But then again, I didn't know about this road until I started biking - so all it takes is a little exploration (or a helpful email from a stranger) to get you on the track of thinking not like a car driver, but like a cyclist.

A great resource I have recently come across: MapMyRide. This site uses a Google-powered map and allows you to mark waypoints, turns, points of interest, or just a general route. You can save your route, and even view other routes in your same city, state, zip code. This way you have a good chance of finding lesser known routes that other people who are more familiar with an area have documented. The interface is much more detailed than the regular Google Maps interface - and seems to be a really neat tool. I look forward to playing around with it a bit more in the next few days.

Lastly, I've decided that I need to carry more change in my pack or something - not for emergency bus fare, but for ice cream. Apparently there is an ice cream man that runs down the same road I ride home!!



Here's to ice cream, bicycles, and to the Velorution!