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Today I took Peter Ohlms' advice and took Parkway Drive through Fisher Park and it was a really pleasant ride. That's definitely how I'll be getting downtown from now on. Today I really experienced that part of bike travel that allows you to look around and see things you don't see from a car. For example, I've lived in Greensboro for two years now and today is the first time I noticed the old fire station building on Elm street. What a cool building.

For variety's sake, I'll try a couple of other routes this week.I'm curious to see what Elm is like in the morning with less traffic. I used that route to get home on Monday at about 5:45 and I was really uncomfortable with the four lanes of traffic. One driver gave me a lot of space (and I thank you for it, silver Lexus SUV), and none slowed down enough for me to notice.

But back to this morning. When everything is going great, you get an opportunity to get irritated by really minor things. Like the grease stain on my calf. Getting ready this morning, I noticed that I hadn't completely washed off the one from yesterday, then arriving at work today, I had a new black smear that covered the old one.

Or how in my 15-minute ride I had to click in and out a bunch of times: at a stop sign at the end of my street, getting from the greenway onto the street, stop light, stop sign, stop light. Does anyone know if a different kind of pedal is more useful for stop-and-go cycling? I own flat pedals I could change out, but I don't want to. A possible solution could be to get better at standing with one leg clicked in and one out. I have had some really embarrassing falls like that.

Today there is a women's only cycling clinic at Cycles de Oro from 7 to 9.
The store's web page: http://www.cyclesdeoro.com/

Here's the whole events calendar. I'll feel a little silly on Friday at the end of my super short ride, eating the snacks the city is providing for cyclists who are coming from far away and may actually need refueling, but I'll do it anyway.