Longest Bike Ride

As I've mentioned in previous posts I am trying my best to conquer my fear of riding a bike.  Embarrassing crashes in my youth have given me this fear.  I'm pretty good once I get going but am uncomfortable with lots of turns, bumps, and especially riding in traffic.

For weeks now I've been thinking of a route for a long bike ride but have been scared to do it because it would require me riding on busier streets that have stop lights.  But lately, as I've been driving about town,  I've been watching other cyclists to see how they handle traffic lights.  I've also briefly reviewed the hand signals cyclists need to use for turning.  With this information I figured I was as ready as I'd ever be so I tentatively started out on this bike course this morning.

Since I'm writing this it means I lived through the ride and I never even crashed.  I did have one scary experience though.  I confused the right and left hand signal and got honked by a huge pickup that was right on my back tire.  Scared me so bad I almost fell though.

All in all I lived and I rode my bike farther than I ever have: 14.3 miles!