My commute is 12.25 miles each way, mostly flat, but with a couple of short, steep hills on the return ride. I ride from Crowley, a small suburb at the south city limits of Fort Worth, to the old part of south Fort Worth.

I ride at dark-thirty in the morning, and start home at 3:30 in the afternoon, but I'm riding an hour earlier than that right now for a couple of weeks, my companie's attempt to save energy during this incredibly hot summer by closing down for the hottest part of the afternoon and early evening.

Almost half my ride is down Crowley Road, a fairly busy 4 lane road, with a paved shoulder. I have to share a lane with motor vehicles for a little over half a mile on another busy road, Sycamore School Road. Most of the rest of the ride is on low traffic neighborhood streets.

My ride to work and return route aren't exactly the same, due to using a one-way service road crossover to get past I-20 on the way to work and a different street altogether to get home, and an inability to turn east on FM 1187 in the morning (without salmoning for a half mile).

My commute route