The Beginning

Let me start by saying I have always been an avid cyclist. I love both road and mountain biking and my focus has switched between the two depending on where I was living at the time. Living in Memphis I would spend hours on the roads of Mississippi and nothing can compare to the hills and single track of Knoxville and Chattanooga. I have lived in Lexington for the last two and a half years and have found that there is no mountain biking around here so my rides have consisted of mostly road rides on my mountain bike since I am currently searching for a new road bike. Before our move to Lexington I moved six times in five years because of my employer. My route to Lexington looked something like this. 1998 Memphis, Knoxville, Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville, Knoxville, Lexington 2004. I have always picked my apartment or house location based on the fact that I wanted to ride to work a few times a month. My easiest ride was when I first lived in Knoxville it was about 1 1/2 miles each way. My longest ride was in Chattanooga and it was about 20 miles each way. Recently on my way to work in my trusty 1988 Acura Integra the muffler fell off. Now the Kelly Blue Book private party sale price of a car like that was $0.00 that just hurts. But it has presented me with an opportunity to do something I have always wanted to do, that is ride my bike more. Now what I am being "forced to do" is ride my bike to work and on short errands. The way I figure it I save about $1.25 in gas every day I ride to work (5.5 miles one way). Now I will be honest with you there are some days when I have to work till about 12:30 am and if my wife offers to let me take the car I may take her up on it but the fact is I have been riding to work over 85% of the time over the last month. I will be recording some random thoughts and observations as my commuting continues over the next few months.