Everyday is an adventure
July 4th, 2008As of today, I am finally no longer a hypocrite when it comes to complaining about people wasting gas, driving around town when they could bike or walk. After much contemplating I decided to bike TEN MILES round trip to pick up a book this woman was offering on freecycle. I’ve been saying for a long time that it’s better to walk or bike rather than drive somewhere, but I rarely actually do that if what I need is more than a mile away.
While listening to Silvio Rodríguez’ Al Final de Este Viaje, I rode through my town peacefully and full of joy until this happened
hell yeah I walked my bike up that hill. Can you believe this shit?
That shouldn’t be legal. Look at that tiny Porsche just barely making it.
When I got to the top, what little breath I had left was taken away by this view:
It’s hard to tell from my crappy camera phone, but that’s one of the most beautiful (and expensive) views in the state of California. Hence the Porsche in the last photo, and the two Lexus SUV’s that went by just before it.
About an hour and a half later I finally rolled my bike into my apartment and collapsed in front of my laptop. I immediately set out to proclaim my achievements on plurk and demand praise. One of my plurk contacts, ceedubb, rides a lot and he directed me to Gmaps Pedometer. This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen; with this tool I was able to figure out that my trip was 10.5 miles and, according to the calorie calculator, I burned approximately 1450 calories. That seems sort of impossible, but I’ll take it. Then again, maybe it takes terrain into account (which, as you can see, is ‘effed), and if so then yeah, I believe it.
You’re so cool. I can’t believe you biked that whole way. No wonder your legs were like jelly for the rest of the day. Anyways, hopefully that book was worth is and we’ll find some super awesome hiking trails. ^_^
Thats awesome! when I lived in Malibu and then Ventura I biked everywhere and have walked up my share of monster hills. Looks fun I want to get back into that again. I’m from Ohio and came to California on a bus with my bike and a backpack, the first time I road my bike along the pacific coast highway I thought I was in Heaven. Keep it up, biking is a very good tool for knowing yourself.
So very awesome! I ride my bike to and from work everyday and I feel so much better because of it.
I congratulate you for dominating such a steep path!
But may I suggest to use an electrical bike…
Subscribed to your RSS feed so you better keep writing.
BTW, have you checked out my gallery lately? More deliciousness has been uploaded.
@evilmonkey
Thanks for stopping by! I will keep writing, and hopefully my writing will improve! Will check out you gallery right now ^_^
Sometimes you never realize what you can see when traveling by other means. A view like that would have been overlooked in a car. Nice post Julie.
@SilentJay74
Nah, everyone knows about that view. Sometimes cars will stop in the middle of the road to take a photo and it annoys the hell out of me. There’s a parking lot and a restaurant just at the bottom of the hill but they’re too lazy to park and walk up it.