Monday marks the completion of my first week of living car-free. So far I have commuted from home to work strictly on my bicycle. I had some after-work events like 2 happy hours and a MANAA meeting in Chinatown. Each time I had to ride home later than normal but was able to do so without any issues. On the weekend, I had a housewarming party over at the Wilshire district on Saturday and visited my folks on Sunday. All of that accomplished without driving my car.

Saturday, I rode the Xtracycle over to the party along with a money tree, my Timbuk2 messenger bag, and a foldable chair (since she asked visitors to BYOC). The ride wasn’t too bad for the most part. LA is surprisingly hilly. I got caught on some mean hills and was fortunate to ride some down towards Wilshire Blvd from Los Feliz. I got there in about an hour and half. Hung out until about 8PM and started my journey home. I primarily took 4th St to La Palmas Ave which runs parallel with Highland. I pretty much had a quiet ride without much traffic through very “rich” neighborhoods. I eventually made it to the Hollywood and Highland Metro station and hopped on the train towards NoHo. Luckily there wasn’t alot of people taking the train at the time so I was able to take the elevators down with my extra long bike and walk right on the train without worrying about blocking the door. Even getting off the North Hollywood station was a breeze.

On Sunday, I had told my parents I was going to visit since I didn’t the week before. I had to swap some bicycle tubes at the Flying-Pigeon store. They had a dim-sum ride in the morning and I got there just in time to join the huge group of people who participated. I also learned that there is a bike path in the area. Very convenient to ride back and forth from Highland Park to South Pasadena. Along the way we had a few things happen. I opted to stay behind to look over folks and make sure no one was left behind. The first incident, we had some fainting. Luckily a few of us was there to hold her up and seat her on the side. She ended up walking back to the shop after eating some candy. I’m guessing she was diabetic. The second incident was that a lady who had not been riding for 12 years had fallen down while trying to ride onto a sidewalk. Fortunately, she scrapped her knees but nothing serious. Myself and another fellow rider rounded up about 5 riders who were straggling at the end and made sure everyone reached their destination. I bid farewell and went home to see my folks. On the ride back, I rode non-stop. Found some new routes and had to turn around because of some closures to the LA River bike path. It took me about 2 and half hours to ride home. A lot longer than I expected. All I knew was that I was exhausted and thirsty coming home. I had to go to a 7-11 to pick-up some Gatorade to recharge.

7 more weeks to go! This week will have some birthday dinners in Pasadena so we’ll see how that’s going to work out. I’m planning on taking the train and having friends pick me up and drop me off. It should be interesting so I’ll report back again.