Ah, the joys of gear and cycling. And the hybrid commute.

How do you keep track of all of your gear? Do you keep it on a shelf by the door? Helmet, check. Sunglasses, check. Money? Keys? water bottle? lights working? Lunch? Do you pack the night before? How long does it take you to leave in the morning?

I had a complicated plan for this week. Due to the holiday, I knew the buses were running on a very reduced schedule. My plan was:

Monday - hybrid commute - drive halfway, ride halfway. Reverse to home.
Tuesday - Drive to park and ride, take bus in, ride home.
Wednesday - Ride in, take bus home with daughter to park and ride, pick up truck, drive home.

Well, yesterday I got to the halfway point at 6:30 a.m., and I had my helmet, gloves, day-glo jacket, lights, but something was missing. Yes, there is the bike. Okay. I check everything over again. I have everything. Everything, that is, except my cleated shoes.

So, I couldn't ride seventeen miles without the shoes.
I put the bike back in the back of the pickup, continued on to the city, and found a parking spot about three miles away from campus, and rode the bike with clogs (gah!) to my office. I left my bike at work last night and took the truck home. I figured I'd left the shoes behind at the house.

So, this morning I looked everywhere for those shoes, and they were NOWHERE. I looked on the porch. I looked in the barn. I looked in the garage. I looked in my closet. No shoes!

Well, that messed up my plan to ride home this evening. So I drove down to the closer bus stop in utter frustration.

I had not planned on taking this particular bus, but because the stop is closer, it takes less gas to get to it, and I was feeling guilty about driving all the way to and from the city the day before.

At the bus stop, my neighbor from down the road approaches me. "Did you lose some bike shoes?"

"Why yes."

"My son thought they were yours. No one else on the road bikes. (We live on a dead end rural road.) They were on the side of the road."

It hit me then. I must have put my shoes on the roof of my truck while I was loading my bike.

*Sigh.*

So, I can't ride home tonight. Lesson learned. But I am thankful I live on a road where if something like that happens, everyone knows who the dumbazz was who put her shoes on top of her car!

I need a better system.