Thanks for all the replies! I have come up with another route to try on my way home, we'll see how it goes. It will avoid that bad area I went through this morning and looks like the road goes under the freeway instead of over (on google earth) so hopefully it will work.

My ride is a bit over 16 miles each way. It's not too bad, but definitely enough for me. I need to start putting more miles on, I'm out of shape! I've been trying to put more miles on lately and now have a biker tan starting