Across the River

Many Oak Cliff residents speak of the rest of Dallas as being "across the river," referring to the somewhat underwhelming Trinity River that separates downtown and North Dallas from Oak Cliff. Arik and I made our first bike-powered foray across the river this afternoon. We enjoyed surprisingly light traffic- went across the bridge, through Victory Park, past my new office (won't be in it till November!), hopped on the Katy Trail, meandered through the M streets, then Lakewood, rolled by my elementary school, which I hadn't seen since 6th grade, then slowly rode next to White Rock (tons of people out for Memorial Day) and finally to my casa. It was a pretty awesome feeling to make it so far under our own power, and we shared a celebratory fist bump as we pulled into the driveway. We'd planned on surprising my parents, but alas they weren't home! So we killed some time by biking around the lake. They were home when we got back and rewarded us with a tasty dinner. We had to get movin' pretty quickly to beat the sun, so we bid farewell to them and headed back to OC. Our timing was pretty perfect- the sun started to set just as we crossed the bridge, and we made it home with daylight to spare. Walked the pups in the dwindling light, then kicked back on the couch. In all, we rode 36.6 miles- not too shabby!

Be well,

Arik and Mia

http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots2009/ariknmiabike