solo bike ride

I went on an adventure today. I rode my solo bike to the library. The trip was something that I'd been wondering about for a while. The few books that I had to return and pick up fit neatly in my little pink backpack. The library is only a little over six miles away, but the trip took me over 40 minutes each way.

The route is filled with narrow streets, no shoulders, blind corners, and fast traffic. I was able to go through a few parking lots, a couple side streets, and a one sidewalk, but many of the hazardous sections of street were simply unavoidable. I'm not used to city biking and didn't have a rear-view mirror, so it was unnerving when a car would suddenly whoosh right by me. Once I ended up with a long chain of cars behind me because it took me a long time to get to the next driveway to pull over and let the cars pass. Another time there was a long piece of PVC pipe diagonal across my path, and cars filled both lanes of traffic. A car would easily drive over the pipe, but I wouldn't be able to. I had to squeeze the bike in the few inches between the pipe and the curb while hoping that the cars wouldn't hit me. I don't know if I grew up in towns with quieter streets, or I was simply blissfully unaware of the dangers when I was a kid, but biking to the library isn't as fun as it was when I was a kid.