My commute by car is 52 miles one-way, 104 roundtrip. That's a lot of driving each week. Right now I can work one day/week at home. These 4 days/month saves me 1 tank of gas. That's big. I'd like to try for 2 at home, but I don't know if my company is ready for that (face-time and all). Already the VP encourages me to stay at home during bad snow days because he knows how far I live. They're good about that. If gas prices get much higher, I might have a little leverage. I'm about the only one in the office of about 200, that lives the furthest out. In fact, some have never heard of Phillipston and they think I'm so far west I'm in the central time zone.

I simply cannot ride a century each time if I ride directly from the house. But I have decided to jump on the biking commuter band wagon as I'm starting to feel the prices.

Right now I still drive the car about 30-35 miles. I work in Lowell. Depending how I feel or if I'm running late, I park in Littleton which gives me a 30-mile roundtrip. Or I park in Ayer which gives me a 44 mile roundtrip. The good part is, either route is entirely flat so I don't have to work hard before work. I figure the 15 to 22 mile commute in the morning is adequate timewise as I am still driving 30 to 40 minutes.

I am having a total blast doing this. The level route is pure joy. Not only that because I usually get home late, I don't have to rush home worrying whether or not I can get a ride in before dark. I'm lucky, I have a large office and I can bring the bike in and keep it right next to me. There are really nice showers as our building has a gym that the company can use. I have closet where I keep towels, shirts and blazers on hangers, and a couple of pairs of pants, shoes, and socks. The setup is perfect.

I have been doing this for 3 weeks now, so far twice a week and I hope to 3. This week, including the 95 degree heat, I chose the 44 mile route and have biked 88 miles in the 2 days. That's almost saving a round-trip for me. And fun; I DO see a difference in the gas gauge at the end of the week. With at least 88 miles in biking combined with 1 day at home I'm saving $90-100 a month with current gas prices. That's big.

I have been using my Ruby carbon frame road bike. I just want to get there. I have a Bontrager seatpost rack with a Trek Interchange bag on the back (love it, and love keeping stuff off my back). Lots of hi viz clothing. I have bag contents down to 6 lbs or so. I have a Maxtor wallet size 80 GB hard drive that serves as my briefcase that I slip into the pack. It's great. This has been so fun.