End of the Errandonnee Era

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Errandonnee 2015 ends today. It was great fun seeing what everyone was up to on their bikes these past twelve days! Many thanks to MG from Chasing Mailboxes for organizing this friendly challenge.

Another one of my coworkers told me today that she and her boyfriend are thinking about biking to work. When she first started working at the restaurant in November she thought I was nuts for riding to work, but my evil plan to convince people that biking to work is awesome is slowly starting to gain traction.

The weather on my trip home was perfect. Forty-four degrees! Although I kept my earmuffs on since my ears can be sensitive to the cool air blowing past them, my gloves and jacket came off. It is t-shirt weather!

I have never felt so connected to a seasonal change before. I feel the world waking up, as strange as that sounds. I can feel myself coming alive with the return of warmth. Winter is a stately, calming season, where snow drapes gently but securely over the land. Spring is full of energy: roaring brooks, chattering birds and budding trees.

Before arriving home I stopped at the Post Office to mail an international letter. I made it just before the window closed, thank goodness. It really isn’t best to plan errands that are time sensitive after work because I never know exactly when I will be able to head home.

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This ramp leading up to the Post Office was great fun to run up and down as a kid. These days though I climb the stairs, how very adult of me.

Then I biked all the way over from the post office to the local library (about 100 yards, what a trip!) to return a few books. I also poked around for a few new books to read but it can be tough to pick out books just from their covers. The library was closing at 5 o’clock so I didn’t have time to browse through any pages. Eventually, I found an audiobook which should come in handy now that I have gotten bitten by the spring-cleaning bug.008

To work (10 miles)
3:40 am to 4:40 am
Weather
28F, 7 mph South wind

From work plus errands (10 miles)
3:30 pm to 4:55 pm
Weather
44F, 7 mph South wind

Errand #11 Post Office (Non-Store Errand)
Distance: 0.5 miles

Errand #12 Library (Arts and Entertainment)
Distance: 0.5 miles

19 thoughts on “End of the Errandonnee Era”

  4. Pingback: The End of the Errandonnee Era | chasing mailboxes

  5. Good on you for your “evil plan” to convert others 😉 Living in a quiet area where faces become familiar lots of people see me cycling around and when they speak to me they often comment “you must be super fit…” as if that’s their excuse for not cycling. Really I try and convince them that “I’m just me” and that cycling to work every day is more about routine – get that in check and the fitness takes care of itself.

    Experiencing the seasonal changes is a great part of cycling all year round. I think you really learn that weather is just weather and more or less accept the not so nice days and enjoy the great ones – we’ve had a few nice and sunny spring days now so far this year.

    And yay for books 😀

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    • I find it interesting that as soon as the weather started to warm up my two coworkers and one of their boyfriends started talking about biking to work.

      Last spring, everyone thought I was crazy for biking to work but now that I have biked though the winter I think it has somewhat normalized fair-weather commuting in their minds. I am interested to see how everyone’s comments will change now that we are getting into “biking weather.”

      So excited for the possibility that coworkers may be getting out their bikes in the near future 🙂

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    • There are a lot of books on that list that I have always said, “I really need to read that book” but I have never gotten around to it. And that is the thing with my library, I can never find classic books that I recognize, it seems like the shelves are filled with romance novels and murder mysteries.
      But that list is pretty inspiring so I think I will go on the inter-library loan website and have a few classics delivered to my library.

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  7. Bri, congratulations again on all your winter riding! It has been so much fun to read your posts and I love how you just get out there and ride. It’s awesome/

    One question about your blog: do you have a search function widget somewhere that I’m missing and/or could you post your category or tags on the right-side banner as a way for people to search your posts?

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