I was up and out the door by five this morning, I had to run over to a jobsite to pick up some tools and materials I needed. I love being up and out before dawn on these cool fall mornings. The sky was still velvety blue and full of stars, the eastern horizon had not even started to lighten up yet. The weather was cool and exhilarating.

I still can't believe August is really over. August was hell this year. It was so hot. We worked outside everyday, sweating in the 100+ heat for weeks on end.  Normally, I get up and run at 5AM, but this August, I quit. It was just too demoralizing to walk outside at 5:15 to find the temperature and humiditiy already in the high seventies. Knowing this was the coolest part of the day, knowing I would be working and sweating all day as it got hotter and hotter, just got to be too much. I took a running sabbatical. I kept telling myself September would come and with it cooler weather. I am still have difficulty believing it is really happening.

Being out on this wonderful cool morning riding my bike and feeling chilly outside was especially invigorating. I got to the jobsite, collected the tools I needed, and headed quickly back home to wake the kids. Today was Max’s first day of choir and we had to be at school by 7:45. We had plans to meet Violet and Erika at 7 so we could go downtown for breakfast. I dropped Max at school, leaving AR and I with an hour to kill.

We wandered around downtown looking in shop windows and chatting about stuff. It was so nice to have some Mommy – Posey time before school. Unfortunately, the phone kept ringing. In case you hadn’t figured it out, Tim and I run a our own business, a little remodeling and renovation company. We were currently working on two jobs.  I was scheduled to start another this morning.  Despite the invasion on my time with Annarose, I had to take the calls.  I am one of the bosses and that’s was you do, especially when things are not going as well as they should...the grout cracked again, we don’t have enough lumber, pieces are missing from the tub kit, the enamel isn't curing right...and on and on. So much for Mommy – Posey time, sorry kiddo.

After dropping Posey at school, I headed home to pick up some bills I needed to mail. I looked at my odometer, somehow I had already ridden 10 miles and it wasn’t even 9...what’s up with that? I mailed the bills and headed off toward the jobsite. I debated which route to take...Ash or Chapel Hill? Taking Ash, I could avoid riding up Chapel Hill, one of the tougher hills in town. I was hauling a fully loaded trailer after all – toolbox, DeWalt screwgun, 16ft extension pole, two gallons of paint, tuckpointing tools, paint brushes, tool belt, messenger bag, etc...easily a hundred pounds.  Honestly, I’d have to be a fool or a masochist to take the Chapel Hill route. Hmmm, what to do? What to do?

I’ll take Chapel Hill, what the hell? As I was heading down West Blvd, I passed a guy on his bike on his way to work probably. If I had to guess by his headgear (non-Sam Adams beer brand baseball cap), the extremely low set of his seat, his leisurely pace, his riding posture (completely upright with his arms crossed and hands tucked into his armpits) and the crappy make of his bike (it was a Murffy...Murray – Huffy), he was a ‘bars to bars’ guy. You know? Honky tonk bars to handle bars after one DWI too many. I know, I know, that sounds extremely snooty and high falootin’ of me.  After umpteen years in the saddle and four years as an Investigator for the St. Louis County Medical Examinern's Office, you learn to read folks and their bikes. Being a proponent of friendly roads, I called "Good Morning" as I passed.

Shortly after passing Mr. Murffy, I was passed by another cyclist. He had LCDC written all over him. Quality bike (I don’t know the brand, but I recognize good geometry when I see it...this clearly was no department store ride), the gear – messenger bag, racing helmet, fancy space age sunglasses, clothes – street, light jacket...probably constructed from some lightweight high performance fabric...jeans rolled at the cuffs to keep them out of the chain and to expose red cycling socks. By the looks of him, I guessed it was Mike Denehey or one of his friends. He stayed about a block ahead of me.  I kept him in my sites, we were obviously headed to the same place.  I caught him at the Ped crossing at Stadium and Forum ready to ask the question whose answer I already knew.

I rolled up next to him waiting for the light, before I could speak, he looked over and asked "Are you doing the Low Car Challenge?"
 
"Yeah" I replied, "You?"

"Yeah."

"What’s your name?" I asked.

"Eric" he replied. One of Mikes’ friends, I knew it!

I told him I’d enjoyed reading his blog. We chatted a bit waiting for the light to change, made our crossing, and headed our separate ways.

I took Mills (one light south of Forum/Stadium intersection) over to Chapel Hill, avoiding the Forum/Chapel Hill intersection and shaving a little distance. I headed down Chapel Hill Rd toward Fairview. I picked up speed going down Chapel Hill. I wondered how fast I could go with all that extra weight, so I started pedaling really fast down the hill watching my speedometer climb as I excellerated on my descent. My previous fastest speed was 29.6, I watched the speedometer climb...30, 31, 33, 36...Ring, Ring, Ring. God damn this cell phone! I kept watching the speedometer ignoring the phone to answer it now would be suicide, or worse.  I might have a wreck and hurt my bike. 37, 38.4! Wow! What a rush.  The phone kept ringing as I crossed the bridge at the bottom of the hill.  I comtemplated throwing the cell phone in the creek, but with my luck someone would find it and return it to me, so why bother? We all have our crosses to bear.

Going up the other side toward Fairview was much slower. I watched my speedometer descend almost as quickly as it had excellerated mere minutes before. 29.6...25...20...18...10...7...4.5 and hold steady there the rest of the way up the hill.  I kept my head down, eyes on the road, and pedaled.  Every few moments I would venture a glace up.  How close am I to that next road?  Can I see the stop sign at the top yet?  When you can see the stop sign you know you're about half way there.  Thus I guaged my slow painful progress.  Pedal, gasp, pedal, gasp, pedal, gasp.

I made it to the jobsite.  I reached for my phone to see who had called.  My hand came up empty.  What?  Where is it?  Nowhere, my phone was gone!  Hooray!  OK, I knew where I had lost it, because I last heard it ring as I crossed the bridge at the bottom of Chapel Hill.  I prepared to disconnect the bike cart and head back down, when Dave volunteered to go get it.  Not one to refuse a kindness, I let him.  He returned less than five minutes later with my phone...dang.

We were doing final touch up work on an exterior paint job we had finished in August and staining the deck.  This house is near the intersection of Chapel Hill and Fairview, it is built into the side of a very steep hill.  You can stand in the back yard, look directly ahead, and see the bottom of the gate...it's steep.  The house itself is tall - three stories on the back.  Of course, we didn't miss anything on the low easy to reach parts of the house.  We only had a few small touchup spots, but, of course, they were all approximately 35 feet in the air...I call them the 'high icky bits'.  I had to use a sixteen foot extension pole while standing on top of a twenty four foot ladder to do the touch up.  I don't know if you have ever been lucky enough to do this type of work, but it's rather awkward.  There isn't a lot of room on top of a twenty four foot ladder.  I was working with two different paint colors, and rollers and brushes.  I spent a lot of the day climbing up and down the ladder with tools and paint.

Joe's (Max's friend) dad called to see if Max could play with Joe after school.  I told him that would be fine, Max could ride home with them on his bike.  Joe has been riding to school with his mom and dad...good for you guys!  Curtis, Joe's dad, said he had to go out later in the evening to pick someone up and could bring Max home then.  I told him that I would need to come get Max on the bike, because he couldn't go in the car.  I explained about the LCDC.  "Oh." Curtis replied, "Well." We often get this kind of confused response, when making plans with friends during LCDC.  People don't exactly know what to do or think about it.  They usually think it's cool, but don't really grasp that you can't go in a car at all.  I suggested that Joe ride home with us, and then Curtis could come pick him up at our house.  That seemed OK, but Curtis was going to puzzle it out more.  One of the key components in living car free is thinking and planning things out.  We'd talk later at school.

I rode over to the mall to run an errand over lunch.  I worked the rest of the afternoon, up and down the ladder, again and again.  At three, I headed to school to pick up the kids.  Again, I contemplated routes.  Ash?  Chapel Hill?  Being flatter, Ash would be easiest, probably quickest too.  Chapel Hill would be harder, only an idiot would take Chapel Hill.  I wondered, is the hill steeper east to west or west to east?  In the interest of science, I headed for Chapel Hill.  Having unloaded the extension poles, paint cans, tuckpointing tools, and brushes, the job trailer was about forty pounds lighter than it was this morning. This would mean my descent would be a bit slower.  As I pedaled, I wondered if the weight reduction would be compensated for by the decreased wind resistance, after all I didn't have the extension pole sticking out of the top of the cart now. 
To compensate for the reduced weight, I pedaled hard down the hill.  30...32..33...34...35.4  I topped out at 35.4mph going west to east.  As I made my slow progress up the other side, I wondered, are the hills the same or not?  East to west was seems steeper.  Really there were too many variables in the experiment to make an accurate assessment today.  Well, there's always tomorrow, I assured myself.

I arrived at school to pick up the kids.  Curtis was there on his bike.  "I decided I would ride to your house with you, so I know where to pick Joe up later.   This will also give me the chance to get a few more miles in." Curtis explained.  'A few more miles in', "Wow" I thought, "What a concept."  I was just under 25 miles for the day and really didn't care if I got a few more in or not. Sometimes I really take for granted how much exercise I have built into my days by biking everywhere instead of driving.  We headed home taking the tunnels to Stewart, Garth to East Parkway, around to Maupin.  The best street ever.  Through the pinch point on West Blvd/Broadway.  I stopped before the pinch points and explained to Joe how we navigate safely through each one.  Then I had him follow Max while Posey, Curtis, and I took the rear.  We arrived safely home.  Joe, Max, and Posey had a great time playing outside until it was time for Joe to go home.