Making it home to Toad Hall in one piece

[Dan O]

Today when I left work in rush hour the sky was gorgeous, no wind, ~80
F, at most.

Last Day of September. Outside of town took the same route home as
the last two days - very slight (48 / 13), extremely steady climb for
a few gently winding miles, up to vast 360 degree hilltop panoramas of
almost nothing in every direction, through little towns, over hill and
vale, dappled oak tree shade, cows, rose gardens... the works.

But which way out of town depends entirely on what happens at any
particular point in time. Today, I wound up at the far wrong end of
one of the busiest, most notoriously deadly, undoubtedly much feared
roads in town. Bike lanes on each side, though, a slight downhill
overall, and no headwind.

Oh, wait - getting on here, I had first crossed like about seven lanes
that were miraculously practically empty, then booked past like ten
cars waiting to turn right onto Notorious St. The front one was a big
tractor-trailer thing, executing a wide sweep so as to make it around
the turn. I could get on the brakes and queue up, or I could dive in
there (still got the sidewalk to bail to), assess the geometry and
motion, stuff it in on the inside, jumped on the pedals and flew off
down the bike path.

Now on Notorious, a bus is stopped in the bike lane ahead. Lights
should maybe change here for us, though, and... there they are, bus
gets off the curb, I slip in there, and... hmm... he's got a
compartment door hanging open back there. So he passes me back and
then stops in the bike lane. So I passed him on the outside and then
back into the bike lane. At the next stop, the light is red, so I go
up on the sidewalk, roll up and tell the driver about the compartment
door.

After the green, he passes me back, then comes to a red light with
some other cars. This red light is at a T intersection, and our sdie
lines on through. I could have lined on through in the bike lane no
problem, but just to be nice and not offend anyone's sensibilities,
instead I went for the sidewalk and back off the curb into the bike
lane (one of those crossed up moments :-)

Somewhere along there the flow of traffic (I kid you not) took me out
into the cager lanes and I mixed it up a couple times, but not much.

A few uneventful miles later, the bike lanes get intermittent, then...
countryside, ahhhh