Day 28, 29, 30: It is over!

After not riding my bike on Sunday or Monday (Ashley drove me everywhere) I felt that it was necessary to ride my bike to work on my final day of the blogrimage. It has been an incredible journey and after not riding my bike for a few days in a row I actually feel sore. I started this journey with cold weather and it looks like I ended it with cold weather. I am looking forward to driving my car again, but I am still unsure of what the future holds for me this summer. I know I will ride to work again, but how often? People at work will probably be happy with me if I never ride it again (mainly due to the sweat). I do feel more fit and healthy since I started and I have been able to eat a ton of food and not gain weight. One thing my wife is concerned about it what I will do for exercise now. In my opinion it was a cool lifestyle that I chose for the last thirty days because I was able to get to work and back as well as exercise for close to two hours everyday!

I started this 30 day blogrimage mainly as a challenge for myself. I did finish it today (minus one day on Saturday) and I will see how I feel returning to normal life. What started as something I just wanted to complete ended up being more thought provoking. I had no idea I would be thinking about gas money, the environmental impact of not driving, or what life was like outside of my Lexus cage. It is strange what happens when you focus so much energy and attention to one thing. I want to spend more time reflecting on the entire event and I will save that for another post.

I will make sure to post before and after calve muscle pictures for everyone. Thanks for joining me on this journey. Ride Strong!

Day 26 and 27: It's all downhill from here

Friday was a good day for riding and I made it home in 40 minutes. That has not happened since the first week of starting this journey mainly because the wind has always been right in my face. This time it was with me and there was a huge difference. Now, the only disadvantage about being as fast as lightning is that I had a greater chance of falling or even getting hit by a car. I almost got hit by a girl on a cellphone and another incident almost occurred with a woman not seeing me while trying to make an early right on red. I yelled at both of them and they looked scared. In fact, the first girl was in a blue Toyota and I ended up staying with her car for three miles! This is how fast I was going and how slow traffic was on Friday.

I guess I was trying to rush home because Ashley was sick and went home from work early that day. It gave me a bad attitude the whole time and I was not going to put up with any cars. Since I started this journey I sometimes feel like there are just machines zooming by me with robots driving them. I forget that there are human beings in there (all I see if cell phones, make up, and stress). Bicycles and walkers have the right of way, but we have lost this privilege in the car dominated society we live in. I have been reading this book called "No Impact Man" (which I discussed earlier) that has made some good points about cars and Americans.

1. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17 percent of the average American's income goes toward the costs of owning and running a car.

2. Every ten minutes we spend commuting, means 10 percent less connection with our friends and communities (unless you carpool)

3. Even if you don't own a car, research shows that the more vehicular traffic there is on the street where we live, the fewer friends we have, because the traffic causes us to spend less time hanging out in our neighborhood.

It talks more about the effect that cars have on pollution and greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, but I am not here to talk about those things. All I can say is the only thing cars really have on bicycles and walking is when they are needed for long trips. When needing to get to work, the store, the movies or anywhere around town a bicycle is perfect. You don't need to worry about going to the gym, just kill two birds with one stone (go where you need to go and lose weight at the same time). From spending time in Asia, everyone uses there feet or bikes to get from A to B and they are healthier and more energetic.

Saturday has been an interesting day and there is something that I must admit to everyone. I still feel shame from what I did but it was for a good reason. Next weekend I will be traveling to Norman, OK to see the Dirty Projectors play at the Norman Music Festival. Not only will I get to see an awesome show I will get to spend some great time with Blayze himself. In order to get to Norman I will need my car. I definitely considered riding my bike there, but since it is past the 30 days and since it is over 90 miles away I decided to drive. I went out to look at m car the other day and see if it was ready to make the journey since it has not been driven in a couple weeks. It looked great except for my back tire...it was completely flat. I called AAA today to com and air it up so Ashley could take me to Goodyear and get it fixed. Well, since Ashley was super sick today she told me no! I could not believe it at first because earlier this morning she had found the courage to drive us to the Tulsa Farmer's Market on Cherry Street! But, now the moment that I needed her she was in bed! I am sure all of you think I am jerk for saying these things, but I did not want to give up after so many days. I had gone three weeks without driving a car and now I was at the last weekend! I tossed it around and decided what needed to be done. I got in my car and went to Goodyear to get the tire fixed.

I know that people reading this blog might be shocked, but I want to respect my wife while she is trying to recover from being sick. I decided that I needed to make up for all this driving by going a couple of miles on my wife's bike for groceries, but it did not stop raining all day. So, I did not get out on the bike once. Today was a great day to have a car. The picture of the bicycle was actually my set up for grocery shopping. The gas I used getting around town and then putting two new tires on the car cost a whole lot of dough. I am not saying that I am going to divorce my car forever but you can not doubt the high costs of maintaining a car.

I am going to continue to go without a car for the next few days because it is only day 28 tomorrow. Although I drove today, I do not feel wrong for doing it. My life would be much worse if I had tried to force my sick wife out of bed and into my car. I know I made the best decision for my well being and hers.

Day 25: Finally!

I am glad that I now have some time in my day to tell you all what has been going on since Monday. My week had the potential to start off terribly because I left the house at around 7:20am. I normally try to leave the house at 7am at the latest so 20 minutes behind schedule meant that I would be late to work. At about a mile into the ride I heard a familiar voice say, "Hey do you need a ride!" As I turned around I spotted an SUV with Carl (a guy from work) driving and his daughter was in the front seat. He pulled into the nearest parking lot and we put my bike in the back. After he dropped his daughter off at school we talked about life and other things. It was the first time I had been on the highway before 8am in more than 20 days. It was a rude awakening to the madness of drivers getting to work. I found out that Carl has moved many places in his life and he was actually living overseas in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. That is pretty epic.

The second story of the day was a simple act of kindness from Gerad (another co-worker). I was leaving work and needed to make it home before 6pm because of the marriage group Ashley and I go to every Monday. As I started to make my first turn he told me to throw my bike in the back of his truck. He gave me a ride halfway home and it saved me a whole lot of time. It was awesome and I can't believe I got two rides in one day!

Yesterday I was riding home and I saw a trail below a bridge on 21st street (I will make sure to photograph it tomorrow). It is the Mingo Trail here in Tulsa and it goes from 11th to 41st street along Mingo. It is pretty sweet, but unfortunately it does not go as far as I live and it is actually faster to just go straight down Garnett. I hate having to deal with cars, but it takes much longer getting to the trail for it to be a better decision.

The other night I was given free tickets to go see Mutemath play at the Brady Theater here in Tulsa. It was a sick show and I was able to get a ride to and from the show. The tickets actually came from Blayze. It is his birthday today and so what you should all do is write on his wall and tell him happy birthday because he is awesome.

I decided to bring back a picture from my time in China last year. My old bike that lasted me a few months (I ended up wearing it out beyond repair) is seen in the photo. Enjoy.

Day 24: Finishing Strong

I am still riding to work on a daily basis, but it has been somewhat easier this week. Once again I wish I could stay and tell you all about the week, but I am drained. Work has been tough and then riding home does not help after getting off at 6pm tonight. It is 8:54pm and I am going to sleep. It is pathetic, but I pray that I will be able to blog like never before tomorrow.

Day 22 and 23: Lots of Love

I have been making it home rather late the last couple of nights and so I have been unable to reflect on my days through blogging. I have continued to ride my bike and have not driven for what feels like forever. I have some amazing stories of love that I have experienced in my life the last couple of days and I will share those in my post tomorrow.

I have also been reading about a man who tried to live an entire year without making any impact on the environment. That is one epic task and the book has been very interesting and inspiring in many places. I will make sure to also tell you about the impact cars make on the environment in another post (I am sure most of you know it is not a good impact).

That is all I can muster tonight because I just got back from a Mutemath show. It was amazing and the drummer looks like Gob Bluth.

My ears are ringing.

Goodnight.

Day 21: Biker Fox The Movie

I rode my bike to the grocery store for the first time since I have done this blogrimage and I will definitely be doing it again. It is a good way to get some exercise and I was actually able to bring eggs back with me! I was able to quickly edit the Biker Fox PSA for your viewing pleasure so without further a due here is my Biker Fox moment.


One Man...One Desire...Biker Fox

Day 20: He does exist!

I left the house at around 3:15pm after doing some spring cleaning to go look for Biker Fox. I felt that my chances were very high that I would find him on Riverside. I started my journey going down the Creek Turnpike and did not hit Riverside until around 4pm. As I passed by the Jenks bridge I spotted him! I could not believe it at first and I am almost kept going in the other direction. But, I made a u turn and rode directly behind Biker Fox. He was wearing a helmet and blue spandex shorts and whistling as he passed people on the left side to get their attention. I got close enough to where I felt comfortable shouting out "Biker Fox!" There was no response, but then I saw him stopping for water.

As I approached him I hopped off my bike and started telling him about the journey I was on. We talked about his business, his world record, and urban biking. I told him that I was riding to work everyday and he made sure that I was wearing my helmet. The first thing he actually asked me after we met was, "Where is your helmet, brother?" He told me not to ride on the streets and that he has been given many tickets by the police for doing this. After the conversation I asked him for a picture and a video. He was really cool about it and he has some advice for people out there. I will make sure to post the entire Biker Fox PSA tomorrow, but for now here is the picture and a short preview. Enjoy...