Back From Tennessee

I'm back after seeing the tallest man ever, St. Louis Arch, Elvis' Graceland, Sun Studio and bears at the Great Smoky Mountains.

Unfortunately Dollywood didn't open until this weekend :'(

'09 Golf Rule Change

"If one wishes to play golf with me, he/she must throw his/her clubs on my Big Dummy and ride his/her bicycle with me to the course of choice."


I was going to wait until I actually went golfing, but some recent comments warranted these pictures. As you can see, golf clubs are one of the many items that can be easily transported with an Xtracycle. I don't see any problem carrying up to 4 bags back there. I'd like to have a pair of WideLoaders and possibly a LongLoader to make them more secure, but just the freeloader bags will have to do for now.

IKEA Route Maps

Here is my route to IKEA. As you can see, I did what any car might do, take 3 direct streets. It sucked.



This is the way back. Janes is pretty good so I stayed on there for a little while. I wanted to avoid 75th completely. Hobson is good because there is a path on either side of the road, one being paved. After that, neighborhoods are always fun to ride through.

Riding the Metra

On Friday, I decided to take my bike on the train to go to the city. I don't know why I've never done this before, but I've always been a little nervous about the Metra people bugging me and more importantly, riding in the loop during rush hour. I had a great time, saved lots of potential CTA money and got to my destination in 15 minutes instead of 50. Riding downtown is so much more exciting than the suburbs. The whole time, I was really focused on not getting doored, hit by a bus or flung from my bike after hitting a nasty pothole. Then I saw a bike messenger fly by while looking down and texting on his cell phone. Maybe after years of riding down there I'll have the same confidence and level of nonchalance as those guys.


I didn't want to try to bring the Big Dummy, althought I have a feeling that about 15% of the Metra staff would let me on with it. The rules say that there is a 70 inch limit, which is a good 15" shorter than the bike, but there's tons of room in the handicap section, especially when you have the entire car to yourself! I guess getting it on in the first place might be the biggest hassle.


I got some crap from one of the workers at the station when I was walking towards the train. He kept on saying that I better have a chain to secure it to the rail on the train or else he wouldn't let me on. Some Metra workers are way too power hungry. I was a bit confused because the guy working on the way there didn't bother me at all, so I expected the same coming back. When I told him I have a U-lock, he almost didn't let me on because it wasn't a chain. I think all you really need is a couple of bungee cords or straps that can tie the bike down. Just make sure you've got something and there isn't much else to it.

IKEA

Today was the perfect day to pedal down to IKEA. I needed to pick up two things to turn my BD into a pizza delivering monster.
If you haven't taken my survey yet, please do! It's short I promise.

Here's the link to my pizza/bike survey

IKEA has bike racks! So much for only 15 minutes in the loading zone. One day I am going to count how many steps I take while riding my bike everywhere. It'll be sooo many fewer steps than someone driving their car to the same places.

Lots of people talk about using their Xtracycles to be able to stop at a garage sale or basically any unexpected place on their way home from the commute and not worrying about bringing whatever they bought home. When I saw that the W's down the street were cleaning their garage out, I decided to stop by and say hello, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they found our bocce ball set! I threw it on and got home with my first surprise cargo, no sweat.

Can you see me? Try #2

Was it really that cold tonight? Or have I just tricked myself into thinking that these beautiful sunny March days should bring some heat? Because it was so freaking cold!

I think all the spring break planning and excitement for graduation in 3 months, added onto all the White Sox baseball talk I've been following these days has tricked me into thinking I don't need my thick socks anymore.

Muahaha no more excuses motorists! I have since added 1) a magic carpet for my passengers, which has reflective piping 2) a seat wedge with reflective strip that also holds 3) a third blinky 4) two leg straps (one for each leg) that hold the pants close and either reflect or light up and 5) a roll of 3M reflective tape that I have since put on my helmet and ends of handlebars...

First Grocery Run

A measly $50 worth of groceries is too easy to haul, not even fun.

Next time I'll have to really load it up. I want a challenge!