Five for Riding

Five years ago today, I published my very first post on this blog with the picture you see above. What a ride it's been (pun intended). I normally don't do very lengthy posts on here, but I have quite the adventure planned for this one, so before I get into all that, I want to get some important things out of the way.

As much as I enjoy riding and writing about riding, it wouldn't be nearly as special if I weren't able to share it with all of you in so many ways. Sharing rides is of course the most obvious one, but there are also those of you who have given the gifts of cycling through birthdays/holidays, all of you who stop in here regularly to read about what I/we do, those who share these words and pictures with friends, and those who are further inspired to do epic things (bike-related or otherwise) in their day-to-day lives because of my/our experiences. For all of this and so much more, I thank all of you.

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I began this blog with an idea to share some of the interesting stories that seemed to arise simply from being on a bike every day, and also to share some more ambiguous stories thru pictures (see: Rustcycles and Nice Racks). I started it simply wanting to get thoughts out of my head and into some sort of creative space. As unintentionally as possible, it became its own animal whereby I had the opportunity to share, collaborate, inform, inspire, and be inspired by others at the same time. It's never been about making money, but it has been about getting rich through experiences.

Camp Chase Trail, Columbus, January 2020

It's also survived thru pretty much everything my life could throw at it: three different moves, a horrific injury, friends, enemies, multiple changes in lifestyle and jobs...I could go on, and that's probably my favourite thing about this little project that I'll remind you, started on a whim. It's endured. I've hardly ever kept up with anything in my life (that wasn't music) for longer than a few months, so I get a sense of accomplishment thinking about doing this for five years. I guess that means this tiny little space of cyberspace is special to me, right?

Center City Philly, May 2017

I've spent some time in the last few days looking back, which I think is healthy to do every once in awhile. Seeing where I've been and projecting myself to some of the moments I've shared on here has helped me to see how far I've come, and also exposed areas where I still feel I can do better. It's shown me once again just how magical riding a bike can be. Riding can be a transformative thing, binding together individuals of any race, generation, belief, sexual orientation, athletic prowess, choice of lifestyle, and the list goes on. If you've been to this space before, I know you understand this already.

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And with that, it's time for a few trips down memory lane. I knew this day was approaching, and because of that, I had decided not to do an end-of-year post for 2019. I mean, it's still less than a month after the new year. So before I go into some of my favourite memories of the past five years, I'd first like to share some of my favourite experiences from 2019:

• 5) Everybody Wants to be Naked and Famous
• Fittingly, as I celebrate 5 years of blogging, I also celebrated my 5th Philly Naked Bike Ride last August.
• 4) How I Spent (Most of) my Summer Vacation
• After a pretty hectic and somewhat stressful start to Summer, I returned to the blogosphere with a brief update on what my family had been up to in those months, including buying our first house together! It almost felt like a victory lap.
• 3) YOU get a Bike, and YOU get a Bike!
• A few days after my nephew got his first bike, our daughter got her first big girl bike!
• 2) Staycation Sensation
• Because of work schedules, I don't often get to share rides to and from school with the kiddo. I was extremely lucky to share one with her AND my stepdad in September (with a bonus full family ride to get donuts). 
• 1) Tent-ative Plans
• I had done a great number of things on a bike before March 2019, but I'd never gone bike camping. My experienced cycling buddy Jason took me along for my first ride.

Christmas Day, 2019

2019 was a "different" year. It was my first full year living in the greater Columbus area, and as much as you can prepare yourself, you're never truly ready for everything a new experience will throw at you. But that's part of the fun, right? It was still a very good year, and at the very least, I've learned a lot.

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I'd like to start my "best of" five years with events that seemed to be most popular. It's really tough to quantify what you, the audience enjoys, so the only measurement I have (besides trying to remember what people have told me they liked) are page views. So with that, here are the top posts on this blog by readership, all-time. I'm actually surprised by a couple of these:

• 5) Zippity Doo Dah
• The Doo Dah Parade in Columbus is an annual celebration of the liberty & lunacy of freedom of speech through humor. The family and I decided to take our first "big" adventure by biking to it on July 4th, 2018, in the midst of a heat wave.
• 4) Oliver Clothesoff
• My 1st Philly Naked Bike Ride. The PNBR blog post usually ended the year as the top post by readership because SEX SELLS whether you want to believe it or not. Ha!
• 3) The Naked Miles
• My 3rd Philly Naked Bike Ride, which happened to be my final PNBR as a Philly resident (for now, anyway).
• 2) Bike to School
• My girlfriend and I convinced Faith to ride her bike to school, something neither of us had ever done ourselves.
• 1) For the Love of Wash Cycling
• My gut-wrenching farewell to the job that inspired this very blog. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that re-reading it did cause me to tear up a little.

My last day as a Wash Cyclist, May 2018

If you spent a little time to read all of those, first of all, thank you. Secondly, though they may have garnered the most page views and there are some great stories in there, some of MY favourite experiences were left out. If you feel so inclined, help yourself to some of my best memories I've tried to recall. This is by no means a complete list, and these are in no particular order:

• When Worlds Collide
• I took a bike and a train to a job site in Northwest Philly to work for TV-13, my former full-time employer that operates more than 75 miles outside the city.
• The 700 Club
• Logging just over 700 miles in April 2018, a feat I'd never accomplished before, and I'm not sure I'll ever accomplish again.
• New Kid on the Block
• The first ride on "The Bike With no Name," who has now traversed well over 7k miles in 7 different states in just under 4 years.
• 300
• Celebrating my friend Todd's 58th birthday with a 58-mile ride that inspired me to start my own birthday biking tradition...
• 33 on the 33rd
• My first (and so far only) attempt at riding my age in miles on my birthday, which morphed into my Bike Your Birth Month tradition. 
• Beach Bikin' Away
• Riding 44 miles on the Atlantic Coastal Highway in search of beer with my good buddy Amy.
• We Only Come out at Night
• Braving the frigid Winter to view holiday light displays in Philly.
• Everywhere Man
• I was literally all over the place in April 2017, including Philly, Columbus, and Pittsburgh with my girlfriend.
• Bikin' on the Bayou
• Exploring perhaps my favourite bike share system so far, in NOLA.
• The Abandoned Blog
• Biking part of the Abandoned PA Turnpike, which was definitely one of the most unique trail experiences of my adventures.
• Cyclotherapy
• Welcoming "My Therapist" to my family of bikes.
• The 10,000 Mile View
• Logging my 10,000th mile (on Strava) in September of 2019.

Philadelphia Museum of Art (Todd's Birthday Ride), April 2016

Because I love random statistics, indulge me if you will:

• According to Strava, I've logged over 10,500 miles since May 2016, plus who knows how many more before then. Put into perspective, that's enough to have gone across the United States nearly four times. Side note, I'd still like to do that one day.
• *Only* 1,439 of those miles were work-related, much less than I thought before I looked it up. Still, that's more than 5 times the width of Pennsylvania, and nearly 7 times the width of Ohio.
• I've published 491 posts on this blog, which baffles me. Nearly 100 posts a year. I never imagined being capable of coming up with that many ideas. You never know until you try, right?
• Since this adventure began, I've been on two wheels in 9 different states and 2 different countries (so far).

New Orleans, LA, December 2018

So what do the next five years hold? You know me better than to try to predict that. About the only thing I can guarantee you is that my family and bikes will be involved. Thanks as always for riding along, and here's to many more miles and adventures.

I wrote the bulk of today's post before yesterday's tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna. Whether you were a fan of his or the game of basketball or not, it's a tragic event involving a larger-than-life figure that should be another reminder to us all: appreciate what you have, be thankful and kind, and love your loved ones deeply every single day. I'm as guilty of forgetting to do this just like almost everyone, so I hope we can all be better, together. Tomorrow is never guaranteed for anyone.

For the Love of Wash Cycling

6 years ago (nearly to the day), I decided to leave the highest paying job I've had to date. You know that old saying "Money can't buy happiness," right? For me, it's true.

After I left that job, I made several promises to myself: I'd never again work full time for another company that didn't share my beliefs, I'd never again compromise my sanity for the almighty dollar, and I'd never let my job define my life.

Funny how things work out. I said "so long" (not goodbye) to Wash Cycle Laundry on Friday, after 3 years, 6 months, and 27 days. In that time, my job very much helped to define who I am and what I love to do.

I still can't believe this is real. I'm still here in Philly for the next few days, but it's different. My morning routine didn't exist today. I didn't hop on my bike to ride up to North Philly this morning. No stop on the way to pick up a newspaper or coffee. No pulling the trike outside and stacking it full of bags. No greeting from my teammates Mildred and Tracey offering me Tastykakes and coffee and politely declining because I've already had coffee and breakfast. But I digress...

Before I moved to Philly, I didn't even own a bike.

My bike got stolen when I was in college and I never bothered to replace it. Soon after I moved here, I decided that my car wasn't going to cut it for my everyday routines. Walking and public transit were helpful, but having a bike became a necessity due to gas costs and parking scarcity in the areas I frequented.

Even after I got one, biking didn't become my daily routine until one random day when I was researching a green-friendly towel solution for the Strengthening Health Institute, a non-profit macrobiotic cooking and lifestyle school I was working part-time for at the time (I'll write more about them in another post). Wash Cycle Laundry came up in my search. The service ultimately didn't work out for our needs, but I saw they were hiring, and I needed another part-time gig, so I figured "What the heck?" I applied. I mean, I could drag laundry on a bike, right?

I showed up for my job interview, way over-dressed but not nervous at all. I'll never forget the looks on their faces when I showed up in a shirt and tie for a bike laundry delivery job...to be interviewed by two dudes in t-shirts and jeans. In any case, it went well (as you probably guessed) and I became a Wash Cyclist in October 2014.

Needless to say, I fell in love with biking laundry.

Being a Wash Cyclist became the thing I most looked forward to, even in the dead of Winter or the swelter of Summer. It's not often I've been able to say that about a job. Day in, day out, I loved to do what I (we) did, and I loved the people who surrounded me. I've made several lifelong cyclist friends, not to mention the family-like feeling I got from the laundry team every single day.

More than that, I loved to tell people what we did and how we did it, so much so that it led me to start this here blog back in January of 2015. Where the heck would I be without this thing? No idea. Thank the universe that my supervisors noticed this little corner of the interwebs that I've carved out for myself. It led to an increased role in marketing the company, where I could officially tell our stories to the masses.

And in case you didn't notice, I fell in love with biking in general.

Biking to and from work and even outside of work became my lifestyle. I remember my first couple weeks on the job, I would feel guilty driving my car to work because it just seemed anti-bike for some reason. The only time you'd see me not riding a bike was in the thick of a blizzard or some other terrible weather event.

Everything else became routine on a bike: grocery shopping, social gatherings, and so on. It floored me one day when someone referred to me as "the bike guy," even though I know there are many other people out there who know and ride more than even I do. You can't hide passion. Among other things, I loved having the opportunity to ride more than 600 miles in a month several times over, and shouting it out to the world. Riding a bike has led me to some amazing places and personalities.

I also fell in love with this city.

I moved here into a dingy room above a bar with not much more than what I had in my car. I leave here in a few days a much wealthier person not so much monetarily, but in experiences and friendships. In addition to being referred to as "the bike guy," some know me as "the Philly guy." I wouldn't be that guy without my bike. Being a cyclist every day really connected me with this city, and in turn, everyone in it. Someone once told me that's the gift of cycling: you're basically forced to interact with your environment, and you can't tune out (like so many motorists do). I'm certain that all of the bonds I've formed here and things I've seen have had that much more of an impact on me because I've experienced them on two wheels.

It's rather fitting that I left Wash Cycle in the midst of a move, because I started my time there in the midst of a move, in one of the most tense weeks of my life. History repeats itself, or something. It's always been a job that has challenged me in all the right ways, not just physically, and without challenges, we don't learn or become who we're supposed to be. I don't think I can say enough about how much this place has done for me. Bicycling has become my life, and I owe a lot of it to my job. It literally helped define my life, one promise I'm glad to have broken.

Firsts to the Last

If you've read this blog before, you've probably gotten used to seeing pictures like this:

That's a full trike loaded for deliveries from last Friday. Another typical day on the job, my job which I'll be leaving as of tomorrow morning after 3.5+ years. I've seen a lot in that time, yet there's always something new to see. That's what I've been telling my replacement over the last week as I've been training her:

Once again, something I've seen before, but this time it feels a little bit different. In the past, I've been training people knowing that I'd still be around if they had any questions. This time, that's not the case. It's been a little awkward riding alongside "my" trike the last few days, knowing that I likely won't get to ride her again after Friday:

I feel like the universe is sending me messages and trying to help me pack as many things as possible into my last days as a Philly resident. "Small" things and first time occurrences have randomly been coming up, like the first time I've ever had to tow my own bike with the trike:

There was nothing wrong with it. Actually, the trike was in need of some repairs, so I took it for a tune up and needed a way to ride home. She's back in action and running as smooth as ever. There's something comforting about that. Thanks to Fishtown Bikes N Beans for the super quick and excellent service.

I was greeted with another situation to test my limits a couple days earlier, when my last delivery of the day was closer to my after work destination than the office. Even though the bags are light and fluffy, they proved to be quite a cumbersome stack:

I had to stop once to make sure everything was still attached. I also carried a bookbag, and this is easily the most volume (not sure on weight) I've towed with my bike. It honestly wasn't fun, but hey, I did it.

And finally, most fittingly, an unexpected detour on my delivery route took me to the Schuylkill River Trail, which I'd never traversed with a Wash Cycle rig before. Hard to believe:

As you can see, it was a gorgeous day. I felt inspired by this sight and decided to make it part of my commute home. It just so happens that another extension to the trail had just opened, so I checked it out:

It's got that nice new trail feel to it, and it's yet another reminder of how far this place has come since I moved here in February of 2014. The section of trail leading to here didn't even open until October 2014. That said, there's still work to be done, as the trail ends abruptly and unceremoniously near Christian Street:

But, this does provide some unique views of Center City:

And finally, an overhead shot of the trail looking southward from the South Street Bridge:

The view from the opposite side is still one of the most breathtaking views of this city:

It was in that moment that I realized how much of this place I've still yet to see, but also just how much has changed since I've arrived. It's truly special, as has been every experience here. One final day on the job tomorrow, before the next adventure begins...

Life After 30

The calendar has shifted to May, which is already 8 days young, and with that change came a dramatic shift in energy (at least for me).

April and May are exciting months for cycling, as April represents 30 Days of Biking and May represents National Bike Month. I'm not exactly sure why, but I tend to get more excited for the former. I think it might have something to do with the arrival of Spring, because it's always had a bit of a "coming out of hibernation" feeling (even though I ride all Winter). It leads to things like this happening:

It also leads me to find incredibly inspiring people and stories, like this guy who found me on Twitter or this Instagrammer I found who biked through snow and ice in Minnesota, sometimes with kids. It leads to people like my girlfriend coming to visit for a weekend and saying "I need to bring my bike because it's 30 Days of Biking and my boyfriend is insane." It leads to me getting tagged in social media posts that say things like "Hey Steve, check it out - I rode today!" and things of that nature. There's just something about April...

National Bike Month just doesn't have that same feel to me, and again, I'm not exactly sure why. This year, it also coincides with the beginning of the National Biking Challenge, whereby if you sign up on LoveToRide.net and log miles on Strava, you can actually win prizes. Last year I scored this jersey for logging over 500 miles (I think?):

So that should be pretty exciting, right? Don't get me wrong. I still get excited about biking. Just not the same kind of excitement I get in April. This year I can at least partially blame my impending move. As soon as the calendar flipped, I spent the majority of last week packing some seldom-used items for my anticipated move to Columbus on June 2nd. I'm pretty excited for what's to come, but the moving process is anything but exciting (if you've ever moved, you know this all too well).

I've decided to do it in stages rather than renting a U-Haul and trying to move everything in one day. I took the first full car load last weekend. As such, I'm forcing myself into temporarily parting with some creature comforts like My Therapist:

I know this is a total first world problem, but I almost feel uncomfortable having only one bike in my house. Like...what if something breaks down and I have to send it in to the shop for a few days? I may go crazy. Fingers crossed that nothing happens. With all the routine maintenance I perform, I should be OK. The good news is that because I knew I wasn't going to see the above bike for about a month, she was the beneficiary of a good cleaning just before I departed last weekend. Silver linings are always nice, right?

All this being said, I'm through the first round and I can relax and enjoy biking again. Another silver lining: my girlfriend was motivated to ride with me a few times this past weekend, and I've kept my riding streak going up to and including today:

That was from my last delivery today. One more thing I'll also say about May, thus far the weather has been near perfect, and today was no exception:

I feel like we earned it after a somewhat difficult Winter that just seemed to drag on and on. With that, I hope it motivates you to get out and ride a bike this month. If you do sign up for the National Bike Challenge, you can join a team with friends or co-workers, and potentially win free stuff. Join us?

The 700 Club

30 Days of Biking 2018 FINAL Mileage Total: 701.5

Today was the last day of 30 Days of Biking, and I packed as much into it as possible. Literally:

That was the first of two trips for my last client of the day, which totaled somewhere near 300 total pounds when all was said and done:

Mondays always tend to be busy, and today was no exception. All told, my laundry team processed nearly 1,000 pounds today, I hit the ground running (or riding) at 7:45 AM and didn't really stop (other than deliveries) until about 1:45 PM. Despite some cooler than normal temperatures, overcast skies, and some moderately heavy winds, it wasn't a terrible day for riding:

I took the above picture on my way home from the plant in appreciation/anticipation for the Sixers' starting the second round of the NBA playoffs earlier this evening. I'll admit that I'm not the biggest basketball fan, but I will fully support Philly sports any day of the year, and I always have appreciation for the Mural Arts Program (you can read more about that mural here). Let's not discuss tonite's result though.

Anyway, I took a brief lunch break, then showered and headed back to Center City. Today also happened to be the final presentation day for the students I'd collaborated with from the Industrial Design class at University of the Arts. We'd met several times over the last couple months to discuss possible improvements in cargo trike design elements, specifically making the cargo loading and unloading easier. I'm more than impressed with their results that they displayed today:

The trike is only a sketch model, but the cargo design is fully functional. They designed a retractable ramp system for increased delivery flexibility, as well as a battery and tool storage area that you can't see, hidden below the bin. We're going to meet later this week, as the goal of their course was to create something that was actually sell-able to a prospective client, maybe even patent-able. It shows a lot of promise. I may end up pitching their idea to my boss...

Not ready to go home, I decided to take a quick trip east to Independence Beer Garden, as the weather had dramatically changed for the better while I was watching their presentation. It was a perfect evening to enjoy a beverage (or anything) outside:

Finally, my first beer garden visit of the Summer. It only took until April 30th. Yeesh. According to my girlfriend, these sorts of places are not common in Columbus, but there are 30+ microbreweries and many of them feature outdoor seating areas, so I guess it's a wash. Right?

From there, I headed to dinner with a friend. We didn't sit outside, but we probably could have if we wanted to:

...and finally I finished off the day by taking a minor detour for the sole purpose of getting over the 700 miles for the month mark. I was extremely proud that I didn't really have to do things like that to sneak in extra miles this month (and remember there's no mileage goal during 30 Days of Biking), but when I looked at my total being that close to it, I just had to. By the way, I corrected my erroneous 90 mile ride from yesterday - it was actually about 52.5 miles.

I plan to do a full recap of April (including sharing some cool stories I found from others) tomorrow. For now, sleep. Thanks for riding along everyone! Until next time...

#30daysofbiking

Rain, Delays

30 Days of Biking 2018 Mileage Total: 596.9

It's the little things that make big differences...

We (Wash Cycle Laundry) have been delivering laundry via bicycle for more than 7 years. I'd say we're pretty well established by now. But, when I tell people what we do and how long we've been doing it, one of the most common questions is still, "What do you guys do when it rains?"

I guess I understand. Bike laundry isn't among the most common of trades. Still, our rain preparations aren't that complicated. Rain covers are the most important tool:

Cyclists wear rain gear, to which I am fairly indifferent:

It's not so much the overall cumbersome nature of rain gear, or the fact that it's not that breathable, but more so that yellow just isn't my color. :P

In all seriousness, if anyone has any recommendations for lightweight breathable rain gear, please let me know. I've waterproofed my windbreakers and pants, but even that only goes so far, because after all, at the end of the day they're made of fabric. In spite of their imperfections, slickers are by far the most effective due to being made of rubber.

Anyway, I'm mentioning all of this because yesterday turned out to be a rainy day as forecast. In addition to the challenges it presents for the average cyclist, it also changes how I can manage my workload. Normally on Fridays, I stack bags out the top of the trike so I can get as much done in one trip as possible. Needing to ensure clean laundry stays dry, I can't really do that, which sometimes leaves "wasted" space in the bin:

So, I ended up having to make two trips into Center City instead of one, so obviously it took a little longer than usual to finish everything. All told, I think this added just 30 minutes to my ride time, but in less than ideal conditions it always seems longer. And all because I had to keep things dry.

Conversely, when you're picking up dirty laundry, it doesn't matter how wet it gets, because it's about to be thrown into a washer anyway. Lucky for me, because I finished off my day with another rather large pickup. 15 bags to be exact:

That also required two trips, as you can probably tell. After the early morning deluge, the rain actually held off and I was able to finish unscathed. For my trouble, this client actually fed me lunch! Something about weathering the storm, right?

In a complete 180, today's forecast is beautiful, and it's holding true. I took a short ride to get some groceries this morning. I'm not sure if I'll have time for anything else today, as I have a gig far outside of town later this afternoon. We'll see. Only 2 more days...

#30daysofbiking

Weird Wednesday

30 Days of Biking 2018 Mileage Total: 533.8

Wednesdays are typically the lightest days in terms of deliveries during my week, which usually translates to less riding. Today, that definitely wasn't the case.

I should start by mentioning that for the first time in what feels like forever (it was only 5 days), we experienced some rain here in Philly. It was a strange morning, to say the least. There was a mist that bordered on light rain during my morning commute, enough to cause a slight disturbance but not enough to be a burden. Ya know, just enough to get the ground wet to make things treacherous. Ha...I wasn't too upset about it. At least the temperature was somewhat normal, and surprisingly, there was very little wind. I'll take that any day.

Things evened out for a little bit, and I was able to finish my route without any noticeable precipitation. I still had the rain cover on just in case, which did necessitate an extra trip to one of my larger volume clients:

It really wasn't that bad. What was bad was when I rode all the way home and realized I'd forgotten to clock out. It causes all sorts of other issues when this happens, so rather than have to deal with those come pay day, I decided to ride all the way back to my plant to take care of it today. By this time, the weather was just overcast, so it really wasn't a big deal.

I was on my way back to Center City when I got a call from a co-worker maybe a mile from the facility. He asked about ordering spare bike tubes. I told him I might actually have a few, but they were back at the plant and I'd have to go back to get them. So I did, then took the additional detour to his location to drop them off before finally heading to the office. All this in the span of about an hour added an additional 8-ish miles to my "light" day. I really didn't mind, but it was unexpected for sure.

After work, I headed to my former employer and occasional volunteer organization the Strengthening Health Institute. Back in December, I delivered food for them in exchange for...food. I did it again today and likely will be for the next few days. By now, there was only light cloud cover and ideal conditions for riding:

I use the term "ideal" loosely, because there's all kinds of road construction happening around these parts, so I had to take a few unexpected detours on that ride too. No one wants their food all shaken up or spilled all over the bag. Still, I can't stress enough how beautiful the evening turned out to be from a weather perspective. Blue skies, yo:

Wednesday was definitely not a light day, but as most of it was spent on a bike, that makes it a good day. 25 in the books, 5 more to go. Where have you gone, 30 Days of Biking?

#30daysofbiking

Training Day

30 Days of Biking 2018 Mileage Total: 494.9

Day 24 was quite the day, not necessarily in the physical sense like yesterday, but more so in the mental capacity.

As I mentioned in passing yesterday, I'm going to be moving away from Philly at the end of May (again, more on that some other time - maybe even tomorrow). I put in my notice a little over a week ago. Since then, my team and I have been slowly putting pieces in place to ensure a smooth transition, one of which is to train a replacement.

I conducted a "working interview" today, which was basically a job shadow. I've done these several times before, but today just felt a little bit different. The reality that I was actually training a potential replacement rather than a future colleague opened my eyes and made me a bit nostalgic. It's a rather jarring epiphany when someone asks you several questions about all the tasks you do on a day-to-day basis that seem routine at this point. Training is good, but for this reason, it's exhausting. I actually realized that I know more than I give myself credit for, and also how far this company has come since I started out as a morning delivery cyclist nearly 3 1/2 years ago:

Inevitably, I started telling stories of the days of yore, bad and good. As you're probably aware if you've read this blog, I've seen my fair share of craziness whilst toting laundry around this city. What else is crazy is that two of my colleagues that work in my plant are the only two employees that have been with the company longer than me (with the exception of our owner/CEO). They in turn have seen their fair share of craziness inside the laundry room. That also makes me feel a little bit better about someone stepping into my shoes. Having some veteran leadership is always helpful for new folks, right?

Anyway, for the introduction, we had some more beautiful weather today before the clouds started to move in after lunch, and a much lighter route (if you want to call 11 miles light):

Things took a little longer than normal as expected, but overall, the day went smoothly and I was damn grateful for that. I think it goes without saying that it would weigh heavily on my conscience if I vacated my position in anything less than ideal conditions. I'd hate to leave anyone hanging, and today was a huge step toward making sure that doesn't happen. Mental exhaustion can never win over peace of mind.

And with that, we're on to the final 6 days of this little annual adventure. Where the heck does the time go?

#30daysofbiking

Marvelous Monday

30 Days of Biking 2018 Mileage Total: 468.0

Halle-freaking-lujah what a beautiful day it's been to be on a bike!

As I mentioned this morning, I had a busy day ahead of me that started quite early. 7 AM to be exact. With a beautiful day in the forecast, I was actually quite excited about this. There's nothing better than getting out early in the morning and getting some fresh air and/or a workout.

In full admittance, if it were a Saturday, I probably would have gotten my fresh air by having a cup of coffee and breakfast out back, and eventually made my way on to the bike for a mid-day ride. My job schedule doesn't really allow for that.

Thanks to the stellar work of my laundry team pulling a weekend shift, I had 15 bags ready to deliver to one client in addition to my usually busy Monday workload. Here's approximately half of that 15:

I know it looks a little awkward and potentially dangerous (I mean, riding a bike in the city is always dangerous), but it's actually a fairly light load. It's mostly sleeping bags and rain gear. One more positive to sunny days is that I don't need to worry about a rain cover, so I can actually strap a couple bags on top of the "full" bin, meaning less trips and potentially wasted time. Not that time on a bike is wasted, but you know what I mean. Anyway...

I already knew the first delivery would require two trips because of the volume. When I arrived for the first half of the delivery, I was greeted with a surprise. More laundry!

Again, I knew I had to make another trip back to the laundromat, and hauling an empty trike basically means we're not making money off that trip, so it was actually quite a pleasant surprise. It also meant that I'd be hauling 3 full trikes for a round trip totaling nearly 6 miles before 9 AM. Good stuff:

Once I finished up there, I filled up the trike yet again with the lower loop of my usual route, and then again for the upper loop. Mondays can be quite maniacal if you're not prepared, but they can be marvelous as well:

Again, I know it looks awkward and you might think that those bags would fall out, but they're actually quite stable. There's a bit of adjustment that has to come from the rider to avoid tipping over. It's called slowing down for turns. What a concept.

All told, I finished all of my deliveries around 12:30. Even I was surprised to see this mileage total:

Quite the hectic morning, but again, the weather was so gorgeous I didn't even notice the time until I got back to the laundromat. Riding is just easier on days like today, and the rhythm of the day just feels more natural. No missed appointments, either (I'll pat myself on the back).

I made a pit stop on the ride home to sum it up:

Days like these, I will miss once I leave Wash Cycle at the end of May (which, by the way, is happening in case I didn't mention it here - more on that some other time). For now, I'm glad Spring seems to have finally arrived and I intend on soaking up every last bit of it. This might have been the best Monday I've had in a long time, and it's not over. Time to take a ride and find some dinner. I highly recommend you get out and enjoy the evening too...

#30daysofbiking