The weather is perfect, but that didn’t mean I felt like getting out of bed on Sunday and doing anything other than sipping coffee and reading books. It’s cool enough to snuggle into sheets and quilts, and I didn’t want to get out. But I did want to ride my bike, and my ladyfriend reminded me that there’s nothing I like more than riding a bike around in weather like this, so I best get to it. So I did.

I decided to ride east this time, heading through Waverly and Ednor Gardens to Lakeside to get to Lake Montebello while avoiding the speeding cars on 33rd. There’s talk of putting a pedestrian and bike path down the middle of that thing, and I cannot begin to express what a difference that would make. There’s controversy, of course, mostly about losing the giant trees that currently occupy the median. There is also some disingenuous argument that people currently use the median for something other than dumping their trash, but I’m not even going to pretend to take that one seriously. The trees, yes, we need to save as many as possible, and I hope they are able to do that while creating a safe way for humans outside of cars to travel east/west between two great reservoirs–this one and the one in Druid Hill Park. It would be amazing. And I’m already afraid of left-turning cars that don’t wait for me at the many intersections. Something has to change, but I’m not sure what, but that’s why planners are in charge, and not me.

In the meantime, I’ll take the long way around to take Lakeside and then the sidewalk at Hillen Road and then the awful intersection to get to Lake Montebello. They are going to paint that intersection to make it safer, and you get to vote on the design. It’s a fun vote, highly recommended.

Once I navigated all the traffic I got to breathe easy and do a couple of laps around the reservoir, saying my hellos to other walkers, bikers, a tiny poodle, and a kid just learning to ride. And I didn’t worry about getting hit by a car so I could just settle in and peddle. More of that, please.

And then I headed out and back in the street with cars, up Lakeside, north to 36th, zigging and zagging to Old York Road and into the bike lane on 39th Street to head across Greenmount and the entirely other world that is Guilford. I rode my old running route, up the hill and up the hill and up the hill so I could end zipping all the way downhill, and it just felt so good to be out there, not too hot, promises of chilly weather and time alone outside into the foreseeable future. Ten miles and I was rolling up to grab lunch and head home to the rest of a lazy Sunday, grateful for weekends, my bike, and my ladyfriend’s reminder to just get on and go.