Commuting surprises

I had to go to the village of LaGrange on Wednesday afternoon. I was running late so I took LaGrange Road/Route 45 all the way there -- about 15 miles. The majority of the ride was actually quite nice as there are now huge shoulders about a lane wide from 111th Street through Archer. I had looked at a map put out by the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation (CBF) and took the recommended route home. It was better up until Archer--the map has Willow Springs/Flavin Road highlighted as the preferred route. There's no shoulder, the road is crumbling at the sides and cars are just flying by trying to avoid traffic on LaGrange. Who would've thunk Route 45 would actually be the safest street to ride on in that area?

On Sept. 22 I'll get to attend an all-day training on the bike for the new part-time gig I have with CBF. Very cool. The job may only go through July so I'll have to enjoy it while I can. Hopefully, I have better luck getting people to commute than I've had with Tom. He hasn't commuted since he got stung on the tongue.

We just got our trail-gator thing yesterday. It's supposed to let me connect Christopher's bike to my bike, kind of like a tandem. I'll post pics and a review once we get it put together.

First failed commute

Monday was the first commute I had to bail on. I rode to a village board meeting that was about 12 miles away. I was kind of excited because I had changed my route slightly from the last time I went and it went much smoother -- less traffic, smoother roads. Then, they cut the meeting short because there is a tornado warning. The forecast had said there was a chance of rain but it seemed like it would be later in the night and there had been no mention of tornadoes. It's not raining yet but I have to ask the mayor a few questions before I go. The mayor then decides I'm not allowed to leave; I have to call to have someone pick me up. Ick. So, I call Tom back and tell him to drive out to Evergreen Park. The mayor then decides I need to leave the building and that a squad will take me somewhere to meet up with Tom. It ends up that the police chief drove me and my bike to my parents where Tom was waiting in the driveway. The village officials said I could leave my bike there. Yeah right. I was trying to get in a low-intensity wattage workout and had actually brought my road bike. There was no way I was leaving it.

The rest of my week has been even more insanely hectic, stressful and busy than usual as I was doing part-time stuff for the local paper, attended two local meetings for them with a total of four articles, did some part-time stuff for a bike group and churned out 10 articles for the commercial real estate publication. Whew. Tonight I have to stand up in a wedding. I'd rather ride my bike home with the tornado warning.