Today is monumental. Today I biked in the car lane. I took my mom’s loaner hybrid (a red Gary Fisher Nirvana, for bike nerds) to the Gold’s Gym on 6th & Congress, about a 2-mile trek from my house that involves biking down either 5th or 6th Street. Last time I chose 6th Street, but that was apparently a bad idea as bikes aren’t allowed on the sidewalks and you really shouldn’t bike against traffic. So today I took 5th.
I’m happily cruising along 5th Street, relieved no cars are honking at me this time, when I realize I’m about to be at 5th & Lamar. Where the far left-hand lanes, in which I am pedaling along, become turn-only lanes. Nooooo! So rather than hop up onto the sidewalk, I just bike myself over into the straight lane. Sitting at the light, a little red bike with a rookie atop, amongst SUVs, trucks, and the occasional Civic, I feel a little terrified, like I’m inhaling a lot of smog, and pretty proud of myself. I’m a real commuter-biker now!
The light turns, I ramp up my pedals, and spin my way to the gym. No mishaps! I didn’t get run over! Yay!
In other bike news, I finally stopped by Mellow Johnny’s. Of course, it was just to check out the place and not to inquire about a bike, but I can’t help but compare how the people at Jack & Adam’s were super friendly, whereas at Mellow Johnny’s it took them several minutes to even greet me and my friend. We browsed a bit, scoped out the locker rooms (um, they look like locker rooms!), then headed out, feeling a little bit unwelcome. This isn’t to say that I wouldn’t go back there if I started bike-commuting to an office downtown and needed a place to store my bike for $1 a day ($20 a month is way cheaper than gas), but I’m less excited about it than I was when it first opened.
Plus, something I’d love is to be able to bike downtown at night, and that’s for sure not happening when they close at something like 7. I wonder if it’d be worth the cost to keep it open later?
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