Ride to Oak Park Aug 13 2006

I didn’t want to ride today, but I knew I had to.  If I didn’t, I knew I’d stay in the house and stew all day and get nothing done, and later regret it.  When it’s 30 degrees and shitty outside, in say January, when it gets dark at 330, I would look back and hate myself for squandering a day like today.  Regret, future tense.

It’s been a very intense week this week, I worked 46 hours and I sold my ass off at work.  My check yesterday was nice, I had a couple of killer sales last week and it was a thrill to open my paycheck and see the fruits of my labors.  Not that my suck-ass retail gig is any better, and is, if at all possible, even worse, now that I have integrated myself into the selling floor and tasted exactly how much retail can blow.  I am, however getting better at it.  Maybe someday I will find a way to use my superpowers for good rather than for evil.

With my hit-and-miss schedule, my sleep pattern is rather scatter shot now, on the days that I close at 930, home at 1015, it’s infrequent that I even get to be before 2A, if then. Then turn around and do it all over at 10 tomorrow.

So, rousing myself from ym stupor, I girded up my loins and hit the streets.  Where to go, where to go?

Having tallied my rides this week, I knew that I needed to try to hit a 50mi ride today to push me over the 500mi mark, I was already at 442, I did 7.3 of Friday, so all I needed was a “big ride” to kick me over.

Oak Park.

OP is the next suburb west of the City of Chicago, developed in the late 1800’s, it is the birthplace of both Frank Lloyd Wright and Earnest Hemingway.  Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of either, but I can respect the place that they hold in their respective pantheons.

I’ve never been there, kut knew how to get there, and since it’s on both the Green and Blue Line El’s, if I got tuckered out at any point, I could hop a train back.  Plus, since it abuts the city grid, there’s no real issue getting there, beyond the obvious ones.

I rode to Garfield Park last week , and got all kinds of “stick” from people about “oh man, that’s so dangerous on the west side” blah blah blah.  And yes, to some degree I guess it is, but honestly, I’m moving along, on main roads, most with designated bike lanes, so the risk, though present, is minimized.  

And off I went.

As I was riding south on Halsted from my place, I honestly wasn’t “feeling it.”  I knew I was making myself go, and unlike normal, when I hunger to get out, today I was just pushing myself.  I was having some iPod drama (the “ride” playlist on my pod go resorted, making me grumpy) which sounds trivial, but I have refined that list over the summer and I reall like it the way it is.  Ok, maybe I was being a bit wonky, but hey, I like it the way I like it!

So I popped and totterd through traffic down to Lake Street and then west.  Lake Street from the loop west is covered by the Green line El and for the most part goes through the industrial and meat-packing districts till it hits the Garfield Park neighborhood, where it just gets really ugly.  However, I was getting some sun, I hit a good patch of tunes and I was surprised at the time I was making on my way. Kick kick, ride ride. Push through, stroke it out, find the rhythm of the street. It’s all very mental.

Once I passed the city limits, it was one of those “Oz” moments, where it goes from black & white to color.  It’s a cliché, but sadly true.

OP is a very crunch granola kinda place, lots of Hondas and Macintoshes you know. But once I got reconnoitered, I hit the hot spots of the hood.  

After I grabbed a bite at Pete’s Dog Shack on Roosevelt in Berwyn (ooops, wrong turn) I made my way north to Washington and then east back into the city. Up State Street, your basic near-death-experience, through Lincoln Park at dusk and then home and hit the showers.

Total miles: 48.92 (for the love of god, why can’t I hit a 50???)

Ride to date: 498.22