When I left the house today I had three goals:
- Test ride my commute to school.
- Find this bike shop I’ve been reading about (at which you can rent stand time and tools and stuff — I have a project or two in mind for A’s bike).
- Get a little lost, and explore Boston some.
First order of business: Boston / school. Last week we moved to Boston, or more technically Belmont, sort of on the border of that town and Waltham, MA, because I’m starting grad school this fall at UMB (yippee!). We moved via St. Louis, so I could clear my shit out of the storage unit I half moved into when I moved into my car for the trip, and anyway July was a fun, but very long month, and we live here now.
A started her first day of work at the new job today and I still have about three weeks before I have anything structured to do, so I thought I would give the commute by bike a go, run an errand or two, and generally enjoy myself this afternoon.
Of the three goals, the only one I accomplished was the third one, and there I overshot the mark. Big time.
I’m a reasonably competent city cyclist, I like to think. I also like to think I’m reasonably competent at getting around a city. But dear god, Boston, what the fuck. I know it’s because I’m new and I don’t know anything, but I have rarely been so lost and turned around. And to be fair, a large part of the reason for this was that I tried taking the bike paths, which is an awesome resource. A larger part of the reason why I got so lost was the Google bike directions, which were confusing at best, misleading at worst.
Anyway, somehow I ended up pretty far southwest of where I was meant to go, there was no obvious way back, and so I gave up and went home. I’m not particularly proud of it, but after nearly an hour forty-five into what was supposed to be about an hour long ride, I decided to cut my losses, regroup, and try again tomorrow.
Specifically, try again tomorrow after studying a map.
Anyway, all of this is to say that I’ll be writing on this blog again, and that I’m a little embarrassed by how lost I got.