seeing red

i woke up a bit later than yesterday, so it was almost 5:15 before i was on my bike rolling down the streets of wichita. i couldn't tell much about the wind other than it was from the south, so i took university east to seneca and just started riding south into the wind. all the way to 55th street the lights were green or just turning yellow. okay, there was that one reddish light, but my front wheel was in the intersection. honest!

when i reached 55th street, i turned east and rode over to broadway. that's when the traffic lights turned against me. it seemed like every light going north was red when i reached it. i'd be cruising along at nearly 25mph only to have to grab the levers and stop. over and over this happened until i was seeing red. grrrr. the one that made me maddest was the light at maple and mclean. i rolled to a stop in the left turn lane and waited for green. i waited and waited while cars zipped through going north and south. figuring the signal must be tripped by approaching vehicles, i was glad to see a car coming toward me from the west. it pulled up to the crosswalk. the cross traffic slowed as their light turned yellow, then red. the light for eastbound traffic turned green while my light, i kid you not, stayed red! i don't usually do such rash things, but i slammed my cleats into my pedals and sprinted through a left hand turn onto mclean. i'd still be waiting there if i hadn't. grrrrr.

i rode to the next intersection then crossed over to seneca and circled back around to university and the dorm. i pulled up to my van at 6:28 and made it up to my family's room to wake my wife just one minute later than she'd asked me to last night. whew! (16.67 miles @ 16.7mph)