Monday, May 14, 2007

A Taste of the Bitter

Friday afternoon, I left town on a little overnight motorcycle adventure. Since I was headed west, I wanted to get away early to beat the afternoon rush.

I was on the road at about 3:15pm. My route - Orchard north to Chinden, west to Veterans Parkway, north to State Street, west out of town.
If I missed the rush hour, I'm glad... because traffic was awful, even at 3:30pm! Eagle is maybe 10 miles; it took me 'til 4pm to get there. 45 flippin' minutes! Once I got beyond Eagle, it quickly started improving, thank goodness.

A bit of philosophy... If you never taste the bitter, you can't fully appreciate the sweet. If you never get sick, you start taking your good health for granted. "There must needs be opposition in all things." So, it probably did me good to see what that traffic is like; it renewed my appreciation for how blessed I am to live close to work and to not have traffic exasperation as a regular part of my life.

(I can't imagine a circumstance in which I'd be willing to spend an hour or two sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, five days a week. Life is too short! I'm too prone to road-rage... or perhaps road-insanity is more accurate.)

2 comments:

db said...

I live not far off of State Street, and have to cross it during my commute. It is definitely the "bitter" part of the ride.

I hate driving it in a car even more. Try getting to Eagle highway during a Friday afternoon, and you'll have veins popping out of your head.

Anonymous said...

I too cross State Street and there starts my unpleasant part of my bike commute. Bike lane is on left hand side and sometimes between the main lanes and left hand turn lanes. Bitter....Bitter.