Rhapsodies

The new bike is beginning to pay off great dividends. While it isn’t that much faster than my old dirt bike (It seems to be cutting off about five minutes from my previous best times) It handles hills REALLY well which means I don’t have to pick my routes based on how flat they are.  But the best thing is being able to start extending my range once again.

Yesterday I had been invited to a memorial at the Elliot Bay Yacht Club. I figured it was roughly in my general range that I should at least try to Bike it. It wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. (mainly thanks to Google Maps it was one of those classic cases of where the program considers every kink in the road as a turn. I got very confused when it told me to turn left on a street that was running parallel with the road I was on.

But other than that brief frustration the trip planner introduced me to two good and safe bike trails that will make it easier for me to navigate in areas directly to the south of Ballard and get to Discovery Park safely and quickly (before I had been using 15th Ave NW one of those major arterials that always makes me feel mildly suicidal whenever I so much as think of using it)

Afterwords I used this new information to take the scenic route downtown to spend the rest of the day to break in my new sketchbook at the Rembrandt Show at the Seattle Art Museum,  the only downside was having to walk my bikes up the Harbor Steps to get from the waterfront to First Ave.

Unfortunately the Museum closed at five so I never really got into my grove and came out with one sketch. And then it was mostly straight home. But all and all a good next step on the bike everywhere thing. (I went over with a map and calculator later on the day’s total was 26.5 miles.)