Saturday, June 30, 2007

Week 3 & 4, Adventures in Riding to Work


This is the weather that usually greets me. In the last two weeks I haven't even needed the liner in my Joe Rocket mesh jacket. I couldn't ask for nicer weather, but the road conditions are a completely different story.


The above sign is what seems to greet you on almost every turn. I can't tell you how many times I changed routes to get to work and mostly to get home. I found a nicer way to get to work after they closed a major bridge I needed to cross to get to work. They did me a favor with that one.

Here's a dreaded sign by most bikers. You can kind of see the difference on the road condition, which are both going in the same direction. The darker pavement is brand new and the lighter road right next to it is full of grooves, as they just recently scrapped up the old road. Driving on that is really weird, as most of you know. A couple of times I got caught in that for more then a mile and couldn't get out of it due to the very uneven pavement.

Trying to avoid road construction is like playing Russian Roulette, lol. Getting to work wasn't usually too bad. First thing in the morning the roads are quiet and the workers are just starting to show up to work. Roads are still open and not reduced to one lane, like they are later in the day.


Driving home is such a different story. I've really tried to find a way home that would avoid road construction, but the best I could do is find the path of least resistance, lol.

Here is a view of my drive to work in the morning. I drive toward the mountains and what wonderful views I have!!! Sadly, this last Friday was my last day of my summer school job. On a good note, I have the next six weeks off.

I did get called to do a job interview this Monday for a librarian job at one of the schools and I'm pretty excited about this. I subbed at this school quite a few times this last year and I really like the staff there. One advantage to working in the school system is I'm usually off when my youngest son is off and I will have summers off with him, unless I work for summer school. I have been a stay-at-home-mom for 18 years and I'm looking forward to a full-time job. With this job I will still be off before my son gets out of school. What more can I ask for?

To my dismay I will miss the official "Ride To Work" day. It's July 18th and summer school was only for the month of June, Augh!!! I would love to be able to ride to work in support of this day. At least I was able to ride to work the entire 4 weeks of my summer job, YEA!!! Everyone at work thought my purple V-Star is very cool. A few even envious that I got to ride a motorcycle to work.

During these last four weeks of work I have done quite a few rides on the weekends, but I would get home and be too tired to post about it. I have put on about 500 miles on my motorcycle during this last month. I will try to get caught up this next month. I do have another ride I'm doing with my husband tomorrow. We are doing the Pikes Peak Fallen Officers' Memorial Ride. The route is covering some of my favorite roads. We're glad to be able to support this, but sad for the reason of the ride. It's to honor two of our fallen police officers that were killed in the last year or so and it would be great to have another reason for this ride.

I will try not to let too much time pass between the next post. My summer is busy with activities and I get lazy in the lulls, lol.

Wishing you great summer adventures,

Biker Betty :)

5 comments:

Pamela said...

some good friends of ours just bought a bike ... and they rode it over tonight to show it off. They are being smart with all the right gear... but their special leather chaps (?spelling) have not arrived.

I couldn't believe how technical the helmets are now.

Biker Betty said...

Hi Pamela,
Congratulations to your friends. May they have many miles of happy adventures. Glad to hear they have all the protective gear. Bet they can't wait to get their chaps.

Some helmets are pretty simple, but some have all the whistles (especially the ones with Bluetooth installed).

Thanks for stopping by and I must rush off to a motorcycle ride this morning.

Biker Betty :)

Anonymous said...

An excellent post Betty. I love the pics. You live in a beautiful part of the country.

One good thing about all the road construction....it should all be done and just waiting to smooth out your future rides sooner!

Biker Betty said...

Hi Sarch, thanks. I love the pics you post, too. There are lots of beautiful places in the United States. I do look forward to smoother roads. Unfortunately, our winters just chew up the roads here.

Safe Travels, Biker Betty :)

Anonymous said...

I'm enjoying your site! Just added it to my feed for early morning wake-up reading. :)

You never stop learning to ride. It's one of the joys. :)

I ride a 1400cc Suzuki Intruder. Was wondering if you'd like to trade links?

Cheers,
Linda / Raven