Raining today. L route, then my old B route bus

Last night, I spent literally three hours at the old apartment arranging the last of the things we're keeping, and throwing out most of what we're not. I couldn't quite load everything onto the Explorer, even with stuff lashed down to the hitch-mounted 5' x 2' rack on the back of it. Today, I am going back out there, and with the help of my wife and parents, cleaning the place thoroughly. I plan on it being a two-afternoon task, so I'll probably be back out there tomorrow evening as well.

We had a gullywasher pop up out of nowhere yesterday late afternoon, and ever since, it's been sprinkling and threatening to unleash another deluge. I shelved the Trek this morning and dug out my trusty mountain bike to ride to the L bus again. Tonight, to get to my old apartment, I'll take the B route out of downtown. As I run out of obligations and if the weather stays nice, I'll be riding the whole trip a lot more often. I think it's kind of lame that I was so gung-ho to ditch the bus, but just ended up ditching the slow D route and I haven't actually stopped using the bus except for Monday's full trip by bike.

Mark my words, though. I am not falling back on the bus on nice days unless I'm simply too wiped out to do it. Even on the "nice" L route, people were shoulder-to-shoulder this morning, just like on the B route. I was practically sitting in someone's lap as it was quite literally the only seat open on the bus. Thanks to time spent loading my bike onto the rack, I was the last person on board, too. Seats are first come, first served, and I was the LAST one.

Riding to the mall, waiting for the bus, and riding the bus downtown takes 40 minutes. That instead of 50-60 minutes on bike still doesn't seem beneficial. On my bike, I am free. I don't have to listen to other people gossip. I don't have to smell what they had for breakfast... or what they are STILL having for breakfast if you count SEEING stuff stuck in their teeth. I don't have sick people hacking, grunting, choking, sneezing, or sniffling around me. Sure, I get a lung full of hydro-carbo-nitro-sulfate-whatever on occasion, but it pales in comparison to what I have to put up with on the bus on a bad day.