I have been riding to work (6 miles) for a couple of summers (as a fair weather rider) but I always want to do more. I have been wanting to bike to school for the last year but the only route over the river is 45 miles one way. I have been in here a bit complaining about my pathetic options for public transit and how the best route available is a 4 hour ride...

Last week my mom told me she was doing training at their St. Paul office (which is over the river and not too far from college) so I got really excited. She got to pick which 2 days a week she wanted to go and she picked Tuesday and Thursday because those are the only days I have class in the summer. This morning was the first of those Tuesdays. I woke up and it was 85 degrees with 84% humidity... Then I turn on the news and everyone is crying about our first bad Ozone day of the year...
So I loaded my bike up into my mom's car and we took off.

The ride was hot, really hot. At only 9 miles I was sweating a good amount when I got to school. Luckily the A/C is on hardcore and I had an hour to kill before class (beats driving and paying $6 a day to commute).

I will definitely be doing this as often as possible. The route I chose was not bad at all; the roads kind of sucked but there was almost no traffic which left me tons of room to weave around the potholes and cracks that would kill the 700x23c tires on my Trek.

The worst part of the ride was carrying all my books in addition to the change of clothes and necessary towels, deodorant etc... I am used to hauling the clothes around but I never really considered the books. My Chrome bag took it all and still had room to spare.

I am looking forward to the 9 mile ride to meet up with my mom after class; should be a great day.