Bike to Work Day 2012

 I look forward to Bike to Work Day every year, yes, I bike to work most days, but on Bike to Work Day, biking to work is like a party! They set up breakfast station around town and I usually eat 3 or 4 breakfasts and have at least 3 cups of coffee before work! This year Jeff had the day off, so he was going to ride with me to work. Linda and Josh met at our house and it turns out they both had the day off too, so Linda renamed it "Escort Heather to Work Day." Monica met us along the way.

Airplane with a propeller that spins as Jeff rides

 As usual, first stop was The Peddler

Linda, Jeff, Monica, Josh & me at The Peddler

 Second stop was Dolce Vita about a quarter mile down the road :)

Jeff, Josh, Monica & Linda at Dolce Vita

That's when things got interesting. Linda and I do Bike to Work Day every year, and every year we stop at Thunderbird Coffee on Manor. Neither of us looked at the breakfast station map, we just assumed. So we rode across I35 out to T-Bird...and there were no bikes there! We talked to some of the organizers later and they said they felt like there were too many stops so they got rid of a few this year. Guess we'll actually look at the map from now on!

At Freewheeling

Next stop Freewheeling, it worked out that we rode a little extra because we were actually hungry enough to eat another breakfast taco by the time we got to Freewheeling. Normally, I head to work after Freewheeling, but everyone (mostly Josh!) was a bad influence on me and talked me (and Monica) into taking the day off, since it was a beautiful day to ride around Austin!

Now we didn't have a time schedule so we rode down the new Rio Grande cycle track to Mellow Johnny's and hung out there awhile.

at Mellow Johnny's

Then we went over to City Hall, but by then they had taken down the breakfast stop, so we headed over to Austin Java, because we really needed another cup of coffee- yeah right!

City Hall

all the bikes and Monica at Austin Java

Jeff had been wanting to ride the metrorail forever, so we decided this was a great opportunity since Austin Java is just a few blocks from the downtown station. So we rode over to the station, put our bikes on the train and rode the train about 3/4 of the way home. Perfect finish to an awesome Bike to (places other than) Work Day!

Bikes on the train