Warning, rambling, blog-like post follows, but considering how dull most
posts are right now on RBM (boring recumbent debates, feh), I hope you'll
indulge me here.
First off, the meeting was at City of Seatac's city hall at 8:00 AM. I
didn't quite have the time to ride all the way there this morning, so I
drove my bike down to the South Bellevue Park-and-Ride, dumped the car, and
took off from there.
The odometer's on the fritz again, so I don't know how far it was. Fifteen
miles, maybe? I got lost as usual trying to figure out how to get from the
Lake Washington Loop route to the Interrurban Trail, but not as bad as
usual -- I only had to turn around twice. I've done it a few times now, so
it gets easier each time to find the way. And, as I was whipping down the
Interruban -- I just love that thing -- flat, broad, straight, and very
little traffic -- the sky was brightening. The sun hadn't quite slipped over
the horizon yet, but Mt. Rainier was glistening, and the dark slate clouds
were tinged orange and pink.
I turned off the trail, climbed up out of the valley, and made it to City
Hall just around 8:00. They have no public bicycle parking, just a couple of
bike lockers I could see in the back, presumably for employees. I just
walked the bike in and parked it behind the yuletide tree in the lobby.
So, I was in the meeting in lycra, but if there's any group that should be
tolerant of lycra wearing, it should be urban planners, right? They're the
ones who go on and on about "multi-modal" and "new urbanism" and all that.
And I was wearing my stylish red wicking turtleneck, not my grey, piling,
fleece top, so maybe I looked somewhat presentable.
Aafter the meeting was over, I could see that the sun was out, it was a
lovely day, and the original plan of just riding a mile to the express bus
stop and returning to work immediately didn't appeal. I could make up the
time for I'd spend riding later. I had this crazy notion I'd try the Green
River trail to ride to work downtown.
You can see here http://www.metrokc.gov/parks/trails/trails/intergr.htm how
straight the Interrurban is, and how wiggly the Green River trail is. I had
only been on short sections of the Green River trail before, and didn't know
how wiggly it was going to be. The trail was hard to find, and the lack of
signage meant I lost the trail a couple of times and had a hard time finding
it again. Finally I gave up on it, since it was probably coming to an end
anyway, and decided I would find Airport Way, which is a straight shot out
to downtown, flat, and if it's not rush hour (which it wasn't), not such a
bad route in terms of traffic.
Sounds great, except I must have missed the turn to Airport Way, and found
myself on MLK instead.
I don't know about you all, but I have this thing where I hate to turn
around. If I'm completely going the wrong direction, sure, I'll turn around.
But MLK was sort in the right direction-- at least it was heading north,
even if it was hillier than Airport Way. And I had never ridden on MLK.
So I rode on MLK. Like probably every road in the USA named after Martin
Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King Jr. Way goes through probably the city's
poorest neighborhoods. This showed up on the quality of the street -- I rode
smack dab down the middle of the lane because the first three or four feet
from the curb was totally unridable, with potholes, cracks, gravel, and
debris liberally strewn about. But it was educational -- since I work in the
field of affordable housing, I got the chance to ride past many projects I
have heard about, if I haven't worked on them directly myself. I believe
that you can get a better sense of a housing project from a bike than either
on foot (which is too micro a view) or by automobile (too constrained, too
fast), so I got quite a bit out of the ride. Not enough to charge the time
riding though to the office, though :-).
By the time I finally made it downtown, I was pretty well beat. I don't do
that many miles in the winter time, typically, just the commute, and by this
time I had probably ridden about 35 or so. So, when I went back home from
the office downtown, I was pleased to see my car at the park and ride, and
was happy I could drive those last five or six miles back to the house.
--
Warm Regards,
Claire Petersky
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