I love me an errandonnee challenge, but this year was a rough one for me. It started a bit later than in past years, perhaps due to the Chief’s own challenges, and the timing was less than optimal for my own crazy life. One of the rules is that you shouldn’t do it if it is causing you stress, so I had to carefully monitor that one. I had scheduled a much-delayed surgery for April 9th, and doctor’s orders were no biking for at least a week afterwards, and to wait for the ultrasound confirmation that I was not at risk of a DVT before getting back on the bike. Well, nobody wants to mess around with a risk of DVT, but, argghhh!
It wasn’t just the surgery. My professional and personal lives both went rather haywire in early April, so I didn’t exactly have lots of bandwidth to plan and execute an impressive variety of errands by bike. It’s so much fun to see what the other entrants are up to: a remarkable “you-carried-WHAT” entry, or a delightful scenic errand, or an admirable cause served by bike. I knew I couldn’t compete on that front, but I also knew I could manage to pull off 12 errands by bike in the portion of the competition still running after I got my medical clearance.
And yet, I find myself feeling a bit guilty about this year’s participation. I had too many distractions on my mind. It felt as though I were merely phoning it in this go round, and that just didn’t seem to be in the spirit of the event. So why am I here? Why not just let this one go? What gives?
I suspect it all comes down to the patch.
Here are the prizes from prior years:
They aren’t bad at all. In fact, I rather like them. I am proud to include them in my handlebar bag collection. But then I saw the design for this year’s prize:
And that changed everything.
So please forgive me. Since it’s not a real sexy report, I’m just going to list out the essential details. This will be my report to the Chief in Charge.
Control #1 – April 16th: Store errand.
OK, this was cheating, as I had’t been to the doc yet to get my OK to ride again, but hey, it was only 0.25 miles to ride my bike back from the shop where it was being serviced while I was off the bike for my surgery. Bonus errandonnee points for using my bike to carry my just-purchased to-go Thai food lunch (with Thai iced coffee) back to the office. Observation: my mechanic, much as I love what he does for my bike, ALWAYS forgets to put the seat back to my height and ALWAYS returns my bike with the rear brakes squeaking like mad.
Control #2 – April 17th: Work commute.
The big day of my ultrasound/doc appointment. I’m not yet cleared for strenuous exercise, but hey, it was less than two miles and I found a meandering route that avoided the usual hill. Observation: I never get tired of finding new variations on my commuting route.
Controls #3, #4, #5 – April 17th: Personal Care, Personal Business, Store errand.
Yes! All clear on the ultrasound. I rode to the appointment ever so gingerly and gently, so as not to break the “no strenuous exercise” rule, but triumphantly rolled home with extra energy. The doc was my personal care errand, followed shortly thereafter by personal business at the nearby bank where I needed to deposit a check. On the way home, a made a store errand and stopped for groceries at Trader Joe’s. Observation: It’s most satisfying when a number of errands can be strung together along a nice route.
Controls #6, #7 – April 19th: Personal Business, Work Commute.
Gotta love that there is no minimum mileage requirement for a single errandonnee outing. I needed cash, and there’s an ATM just a block away. Why walk it when you can bike it, right? Then off to work as usual. Observation: even though this was all legal, I feel guilty.
Control #8 – April 20th: Social Call
Rode with a couple of friends to enjoy one of my favorite rides here in Los Angeles. We rode up Nichols Canyon, made a quick stop at Tree People where a nice person snapped this photo, and then descended through the gorgeous Franklin Canyon. Observation: there is no better way to work off a stressful week than a beautiful bike ride with friends.
Control #9 – April 22nd: Non-store errand
I go to the dry cleaners once a year – to knock out one of my errandonnee controls and finally get around to getting whatever may have piled up cleaned. Observation: I seem to be wearing a lot less of my dry clean only clothing this year.
Controls #10, #11, #12 – April 23rd: Wild Card, Arts & Entertainment, Social Call
For my wild card entry, I got a little creative. I live in an historic neighborhood, and I have over the years grown especially fond of some of the architectural gems nearby. So I took a bit of a zigzagging route to pay a brief visit to several of my favorites. Observation: architecture does a lot for a neighborhood’s soul.
In the Arts & Entertainment category, I decided to swing by one of the Metro stations not too far from where I work. It’s not my nearest station, so I never go there, but I’d seen that it featured a giant rock as its public art installation (each L.A. metro station has some cool art installation). Unfortunately, the low sun and the nature of the rush hour crowd combined with a large number of roving characters, many of whom were clearly coveting my Bianchi (one actually said “nice Bianchi” to me as we passed) made it an bad time to appreciate the artwork. The giant rock (which I could not photograph well under these circumstances) rises up from inside the station where it forms part of the ceiling of the platform area and out onto the sidewalk at street level. But it appears to be in need of either repair or protection from vandals, and, well, the photos online are much better than what I saw in real life.
Finally, desperately in need of just one more errand to finish the challenge on the very last day, I stopped to visit a ghost bike at Catalina & Vermont, which I’m treating as a social call (if the judges won’t accept a visit to a ghost bike as a social call, then let’s put this in the wild card category, ok?). This is an intersection I ride through quite often, and the tragic incident that ended a cyclist’s life here was not that long ago. I wanted to pay my respects.
And with that, I was able to hit all but one category (sorry, no interesting “you carried what” this year). My total mileage for the season’s errands came to 69.7 miles, most of those from the social ride to Nichols & Franklin Canyons. I think that means I satisfied all the requirements to earn a patch. Yes, I’m a wee bit late with meeting the 4/30/19 deadline for submissions, but I do believe I posted most, if not all of these, to social media at the time, so, hey, cut me a break.
Here’s to a more full engaged Errandonnee next year.
WeLove2Bike! 