I’ve talked about doing it for a long time, but I finally biked to work today! It was 12.4 miles and took 58 minutes. It would have been faster, but my lungs are a bit out of practice and the hills were hard on me. My fastest speed was 35 mph.

I was pleasantly surprised by the vehicle drivers. After hearing many horror stories and having my own share of people yell, curse and honk at me in my neighborhood, I encountered none of that on the roads today. All the drivers were courteous and many moved to the far lane.

I was also pleased with the roads in Missouri. The roads all have wide shoulders. 6-8 feet in some parts but at least 2.5 feet in most other places. The drains, which I often hear about as well, were well designed to accommodate bicyclists. In Kansas, the roads are nice, but there are NO shoulders. I was occupying a lane with traffic. For the most part this was not a problem, but in one section, there was construction and I had to ride 2 feet into the lane to avoid broken pavement. The vehicle drivers were still very courteous even during this stretch.

All in all I had a great experience and hope that when I do this in the future that this experience is the norm and not the exception.