Commute

Well, I thought I would try this blogging thing again.

One of the challenges of living in the inner ring of a large suburban area is the daily commute. We are down to one car now, so I typically have been taking a work-provided shuttle most days to work. On the rare day that I drive in, I am often accosted with something along the lines of this (somewhat exaggerated).

However, for the past 3 weeks I have been riding my bike into work. The beautiful and amazing thing about the D.C. suburbs is the bike trails. Instead of fighting my way through something as enjoyable as the above communal commute, I bike to work on park-lined trails that look like this.

It is a 6.5 mile ride to work on a bike trail that follows the old railroad tracks. It goes under all of the busy main roads and runs along side a small creek the whole way. It takes me 5 minutes to ride from my apartment to the trail, 15 minutes on the trail, and then 5 minutes through neighborhoods until I ride up to work.

The great thing is that it is a nice, gradual downhill ride into work. Of course the opposite is true on the way home, and for some reason the wind is always blowing against me in the afternoon. It is a great way to start the day and a good work out in the afternoon.