Dry Run...

Hello, friends! 

Greetings from Saint Louis and a Happy Halloween to you all.  Mizzou ACF decided to do some community service tonight instead of having Large Group, so I decided that this week I was going to stay in Saint Louis instead of driving to Columbia and back.  As much as I love CoMO, the chance to spend 12 days with my wife was too good to pass up.  =0). 

But, since I knew I was going to be away from CoMO for almost 2 weeks, I decided to bring Sulu along with me for the trip!  I wanted to see if having a bike in Saint Louis actually made sense for me or if it was just a pipe dream that really shouldn't happen.  Yesterday I biked to FloValley as a "dry run."  Here are the things that I learned:

- My commute is hilly, but not terrible.  Here is the map that I take to get from our apartment to FloValley.  It is about 5 miles.  It may be hard to see on the map but it has a few hills that are a bit beastly.  However, I was actually surprised by how doable those hills were.  Each uphill is prefaced by a downhill, so I have some momentum going in.  They are still a trek, but it was better than I thought. 

- Saint Louis in not as bike friendly as CoMO.  There are no bike paths on my commute, meaning I have 2 options.  Either I ride in the street and run the risk of getting hit by a car who is probably not used to seeing a bike on the road, or I ride on the sidewalk and have to avoid all the pedestrians who have the right of way and are standing, waiting for the bus.  It is a tough call.  I rode mostly on the sidewalks yesterday after getting honked at a few times. 

- If I go, I go alone.  One of the great things that makes biking great is my baby jogger.  I can attach it to Sulu, allowing me to carry more stuff, from supplies, to guitars, to anything that weighs less than 110 pounds.  Well, the streets and sidewalks are so narrow here in Saint Louis that a baby jogger probably wouldn't survive.  If I were to bike to FloValley, I wouldn't be able to take a lot of stuff with me, which kind of defeats the purpose. 

- Grocery shopping is totally doable.  Getting to FloValley is a bit of a beast but getting to the shopping center just up the road is actually relatively easy.  The question is whether or not bringing Sulu back and forth just so I can go grocery shopping is worth the hassle. 
So, there you have it.  I love biking and I will definitely continue to ride in CoMO but I am on the fence about whether or not bringing Sulu back and forth is a good idea.  I am leaning towards "no" but we shall see. 

Stats:
Places traveled: To FloValley and back
Distance: 10 miles ($.83)
Meters: None

Total: $.83
Grand Total: $319.86
Left to Save: $263.17

Happy Biking!

~Adam