The Last Commute
 

With great sadness, I annouce my last bicycle commute. I'm 41, and I started riding my Schwinn BMX bike to school in the 3rd grade. I've commuted in South Carolina, Norfolk and Portsmouth Virginia, Arlington and Washington D.C., Honolulu, Baghdad (seriously), and Monterey, CA.

After 20 years, I'm leaving the Navy and returning home. Potential job sites are more than 40 miles away, and I have an ultimatum from the lady of the house to be able to pick up kids from school on any random day. Seems reasonable.

So: I'm hanging up the the luggage rack & panniers. I didn't know it at the time, but this was my last commute:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/648922881

I've been mostly creeping on the Commute forum since 2006. Please, ride on and keep on posting more than I did.

Now for the good part! What I get:

1. Weekdays with my family - priceless. For the last 4 years, it has only been weekends.
2. Weekend club rides - when I've been home, I've abstained and focused on the family. Now, Saturday club ride starts 1 mile from my new house!
3. South Carolina country rides, not urban red light gutter junk frustration.
4. Stable size - N=4, but N+1 has become N-1 based on garage clutter, but, cost is no object, so I can get whatever bike I want, provided I reduce garage clutter! (wife says so!). Lynskey, reserve me one...as soon as I get a job.

You'll find me on the Road and Triathlon threads now, but I'll drop in from time to time.

Signing off,
VTKarl

Don't think I'd call it last commute. Pause perhaps.

Yup, 41 is pretty young to call it "quits" on anything. In the interim, sounds like good trade-offs and some weekend fun to boot!

You might find time to ride at lunch or before or after work. And one day, you might find yourself working a cycling distance from home. In any case, this does not signify it's time to stop enjoy cycling.

You can always drive part way and ride the rest. I drive 10 miles and ride 15 miles each way every day. Might be a little more difficult if you are on call to pick up kids, but maybe there's a way to address the unforeseen.

40 miles! Jesus. That's a killer in anything but a jet. I think I'd rather shoot myself. She wants you to drive home 40 miles to pick up kids from school without notice?

She's the lady of the house. Who's the one to argue?

swmbo

First off, I truly appreciate your service to our country. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Don't hang up the racks and panniers. They'll still be good for occasional short tours.

Taking the bike on the car to work and ride it during your break is a good idea, also drive part of the way then ride the bike is another good idea. I think at 41 is too soon to stop riding.

Where in SC? I'm in the Columbia area

Anderson - I grew up in Clemson - but did not attend...

I'm not stopping riding!

Previously the commute was a combination of the love of the bike and time efficiency. In the future, it'll be pure pleasure and glee.

Service was my pleasure. I'm blessed by the support of many, particularly my wife, kids, and parents, but including excellent supervisors, mentors, and funding & policy support from you all.

I'd do the 40 mile commute... a few times a year.

I like the way you think. Lon Haldaman used to commute 40 something miles each way to and from his job at a bicycle shop. That was just routine. For fun he did things like ride across the entire state of Wisconsin on a single speed in less than a day.

We used to have a guy at work who commuted 40+ mile each way, every day, until he retired. I didn't know him, but I overheard him say in 20+ years he'd only driven in to work a handful of times.

BTW - He crushed the mileage challenges during May is Bike Month. I think he racked up over 2500 miles during his last May is Bike Month.

Thank you for your service, [MENTION=50078]vtkarl[/MENTION]!

No kidding. Does she work farther away than that, or are you (the OP) expecting to be a house-husband for the time being? ;)

Yeah, that dude does things on a scale that's an order of magnitude above what any of us do. :lol:

Living 40 miles from any potential job sounds rediculous and not very planet-friendly... I myself live 50 miles from the ocean, which is all the way across all of NJ and a few miles of PA. I can't imagine the closest job being that far, holy cow.

- Andy

@andy, sometimes it depends on the job and market. Anderson isn't a very big town when you compare it to places in the mid atlantic. Even living around baltimore my dad has about a 40 mile commute from northeast of the city to south of it. I think the population is probably under 30k for the city. The lady in the office next to mine grew up around there. It's very easy to see at least a 40 mile commute to get to Greenville or Spartanburg...Anyway, beautiful area out there

@OP...maybe I'll see you at some charity ride or fondo in the area!

For seven years I drove 30 miles and biked 10 miles to work. It was more often than not the best part of my day. I have a strong feeling you will be doing that occasionally.

Thanks for the thoughts - thankfully, in the end, I am taking a job that is 21 miles (Google bike route) or 25 miles (car/interstate), so there is hope!

I the meanwhile, I'm trolling on the commuting section. I'm just not interested in the roadie section.

I agree with some other comments here.. 41 is a bit young to say you're calling it quits. I suspect you'll physically be a bicycle commuter again soon, and you always will be in heart by the sounds of it.

21 miles is definitely doable, at least a few times a week. :)

+1

I joined the Navy at age 21 also, but I didn't re-enlist after 4 years. If I had kids, I probably would have done the whole 20.

I used to ride my bike to work in the Navy - could ride right up to the pier or the barge or wherever I needed to be but all the drivers had to park in centralized lots and walk or bus the rest of the way. Got waived right through the base gate and the secure area gates as well... very convenient. One of my CO's had a Navy-issued Workman tricycle and thought he was special... hA!


Subs - Bangor, Bremerton, and Mare Island

You'll be back to commuting before you know it. May you have fair winds and following seas with your new journey ahead. Thank you for your service.