45th bithday ride

connect.garmin.com/activity/100899172

i woke up and hit the road just before sunrise this morning. with no headlights, it was a bit scary here and there, but i managed to navigate the streets of wichita without getting hit.

i rode south into the wind to begin with, taking my bike south to west street and then further south on it until i had to turn left or right. i chose right and soon found myself at hoover road. i'd taken hoover north into town dozens of times, so i decided to take it south. i was pleased to discover several miles of pavement in that direction.

i finally reached the end of the pavement a mile south of 71st street, so i turned around, rode back the mile and took 71st east into haysville. when i hit meridian, i rode south intending to turn around when i hit an hour in the saddle.

the turn around never happened. just before i'd been out an hour, i hit 87th street and on a whim decided to see where it went. i'd never turned there before, so i enjoyed the discovery of a seldom used road with only one dog. he was too slow and didn't get his seven pounds.

at seneca, i turned north again and wound my way back into haysville where i did a little wandering. there's really not an easy way through haysville. i found a bike path and rode on it for a little and then found my way out to highway 81 where i turned to ride back into wichita.

riding up 81 is an adventure. traffic had increased by this time, but it wasn't overly heavy. i rode up and over the viaduct and then grabbed the bike trail at the river just north of used car lot central.

i rode the bike trail all the way up to the sycamore cut off, jumped the curb and rode up to maple and across to the university campus where i stopped for breakfast.

after breakfast, i hit the mean streets again. i needed another 14.47 miles, so i once again headed south on the bike trails. i jumped off on broadway and rode south a mile or two before turning off on 44th street and making two loops around the closed housing development streets.

shooting out of the development back onto broadway, i raced north up broadway, jumped on the bike trail and once again took the sycamore cutoff. a few more twists and turns and i made it back to the dorm parking lot where my odometer rolled over to 45 miles. satisfied, i hopped off my bike and headed into the dorm to clean up and head to workshops.

45 miles on my 45th birthday! what a great gift! the only thing that would've made it better would be 45 friends to share it with. (45.00 miles @ 17.2mph)