Last week when we were returning to South Dakota from Ohio, my "Service Engine Soon" light came on just east of Peoria, IL. I immediately called my mechanic (so nice to live in the age of cell phones) and after asking me a few questions he said the truck would probably be fine to complete our journey home. The soonest he had an opening to look at it was today.

So this morning I loaded the bike into the truck then drove to the shop. From there I unloaded the bike and had a relatively easy 2.25 mile ride to work. It was a balmy 31 degrees (compared to the previous week or so) and the wind was only blowing about 10 mph (calm for us in the winter.) Had a couple decent hills to climb, and combined with the warm temps I got a bit sweaty even on this short ride. They're predicting freezing rain/sleet for later today but so far it was dry.

This afternoon I'll reverse the process: ride back to the shop and load my bike, then drive home. As long as I have the truck out I'll probably run to the home center on my way home too.

One benefit to bicycle commuting is that not only does it reduce wear on your cars, when they do break down it's a pretty painless process to have it serviced. No need to bum rides from family/friends or rely on a shuttle service (which in the case of the little shop I use doesn't exist.) It just turns into a normal commute day with the added benefit of taking an interesting route to work I don't normally get to ride.