I Did It!

[carpaltunnel]

Thanks girls for the great feedback. I really appreciate it!

I've gotten mostly great feedback from coworkers too. One or two don't get it but that's ok.

About the route: Total distance is about 6.5 miles. The first two are great - there's a new extra wide sidewalk all the way to a major crossing where five streets come together and it's a crazy crossing. That's complicated by the fact that Omaha NE drivers don't get bicycles at all. We have nice crossing lights, but the law in NE is a driver can make a right turn on a red light after stopping. (I think the legislature meant they should look both ways first.)

Drivers In My Metropolis, herinafter referred to as DIMM, interpret this to mean right turn on red without stopping, without looking, while talking on the phone, combing hair, and eating breakfast. Thus my reluctance to cross this intersection. It is the beginning of the Death Zone, a stretch of about a mile and a half with no trails and minimal sidewalks, peppered on both sides with busy driveways into fast food, grocery store, auto parts store, and dry cleaner parking lots.

Now, I can understand the morning traffic in & out of most of those establishments: coffee, donuts, drop off the cleaning; but driving along Auto Parts Row every morning, I marvel at the number of people who have to stop on the way to work for a distributor cap. Or something.

The DIMMs turning in & coming out of all these entrances create a gauntlet run for a cyclist. I hardly ever see anyone cycling to work anyway, and I NEVER see a cycle in the Death Zone.

I tried to find a way around this stretch, but it's a bottleneck street between a major creek on one side, industrial area, and commercial on the other. There simply is no way around it.
Once I get stronger I may be able to bike "upstream" a mile to cross at a light next to a police station. The DIMMs behave a little better at that intersection - could it be the police station? Does that mean they actually know what the law is but they just don't bother unless they think they might get caught?? I have actually seen a guy cross it in a motorized wheelchair it's that safe. (The "upstream" crossing, that is.) Anyway that has some potential but I'd still have to cut across a huge lumberyard industrial area with more minimal sidewalks.

So that middle part ruins what could be a nice 6 + mile ride. If anyone knows Omaha, it's Q Street from Millard Avenue to - oh, probably Deauville Drive.

Anyway, about your mom: Does she read health related literature? The Nutrition Action Newsletter (Center for Science in the Public Interest) periodically prints a nice article about why exercise is soooo important to aging people. I'll find the last two articles and post the dates here tomorrow for you. Tufts University also publishes a nice health newsletter. And there's a great health site and weekly e-letter you can sign up for on drmirkin.com - he and his wife are bikers, by the way. He's a sports physician in the Washington DC area and a medical commentator on a CBS radio station out there.

Maybe she'll begin to understand if she's more informed. You're a great daughter to be concerned about her. Don't give up on her!

Sorry to go on at such length - I'm so happy to have someone to share my little triumph with!