This morning, I got to ride to work for my very first time. Elijah was kind enough to meet me at my house and make sure I was properly geared and prepped. The ride itself was pretty easy and very enjoyable, considering most of it was on a bike path away from the traffic. We were even able to chat along most of the ride.

On the way back, there were a lot more people on the trail, walking and riding, which served to be a minor obstacle, but we just had to be careful to weave our way through all of them without causing any major disruptions or accidents.

One thing I noticed was that when I am riding, I feel more connected to the people and communities that I am passing through, in comparison to driving along the freeways, zipping from destination to destination with my windows rolled up and radio playing.

Considering how well this first ride went, I would like to try riding once or twice a week, at least during the summer while we have the extra daylight and also while Juliette is not in school. As for my equipment, I was very happy with how my bike and gear worked, maybe some minor tweaks and upgrades to get everything to a happy medium. But more importantly, just get out there and ride!

In case anyone’s interested, you can click on the picture at the top of the post and it will take you to Google Maps which shows the GPS track route that we rode on our commute. Also, if you’re really curious, you can right-click and download the KML file to open in Google Earth and literally replay our ride. Of course, it won’t be nearly as fun as actually doing it .