First ride

Today was my first ride to work. Made it there from home in 30 minutes, door to door. Takes 20 by car. Was tricky planning what clothes to bring, etc, but all worked out. Coming home I forgot to keep track of ride time, but noted that it only took an hour to ride home, shower, and eat. So probably wasn't more than 35 minutes home despite the uphill climb.

Ride description- mostly flat to gently rolling, but first or last 1.5 miles is a hill that represents almost 300 feet of descent/climb, some of it at up to 27% grade.

Some brief musings on car vs. bike impacts:

11 miles round trip in 1994 Dodge Dakota @ 14mpg = 15 lbs carbon dioxide emitted to atmosphere.
(Based on EPA estimate of 1 gallon of gas combusted creates 19lbs CO2)

4 trips per week * 16 weeks in a semester * 15 lbs CO2= 960 lbs CO2
960lbs CO2 *2 semesters = 1920

Bike: Zero smog, zero noise, zero oil drips, zero PM (particulate matter) emissions.

Reasonable estimate is that I reduce my CO2 emissions by half if I ride 50% of the time. Hopefully I can ride more than that, but we'll start small.