When I posted the test video, I was surprised at how much attention people were paying to various details, and some of the comments talked about my riding style and traffic controls in the brief ride. So, I’m curious what people will see here.

Before I post the video, I have a few unrelated comments.

1. For quite a while now, I have been having some problems with my little toe on my left foot. Nothing has worked to get it to heal on its own, so I will be having surgery next Friday. It’s fairly minor and routine, or so I’m told, but I’m very much not looking forward to it. I will be off the bike for at least two weeks. After two weeks, the stitches come out and I can do whatever I’m comfortable with.
2. Moving, and doing some work in the new house, is proving to be very time-consuming. So I have not done much riding. We also don’t have Internet access in the new place yet, so it’s proving difficult to blog much.
3. My new commute will be close to twice as long as the old one, so things are going to get more interesting on the commuting front. I already started riding the Trucker when the weather isn’t too bad, and I have to say, it makes my commute much more enjoyable.
4. I tried to make a video of a fantastic night ride I did with my friend Dave. It was cold, dark, snowing, windy, and we were riding on hilly gravel roads. It was phenomenal! Unfortunately, the helmet cam does not handle darkness very well. I’m not sure yet if any of the footage will be salvageable.

Anyway, back to the commute video: I hope you enjoy it!

I headed out, to an area where I haven’t ridden much. Partially, I wanted some variety, but there were other reasons for going to this particular area, which will become clear momentarily. It was a cool, foggy day, predicted to get into the mid-40s, but it never got there; I think the actual high was right around 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

I rolled through town, mostly through neighborhoods. Riding the Trucker was an absolute dream compared to the beater I ride to work, which has studded tires to boot. I was excited because  I was exploring part of what will become  my new commute (assuming everything goes well). You see, we put an offer on a house — sale is pending. Pretty exciting stuff! On a side note, buying a home is an extremely complicated process, made even more complex because of a federally-backed loan and another government program on top of that. But this will all pay off in a very, very low interest rate.

Anyway, my new commute will be about twice as long as the old one. So my commute will now be 5-6 miles. I fully expect the Trucker will see a lot more commuting duty, my heavy old beater is up to the task but not exactly ideal. I’ll still ride the beater in bad weather.

I was riding to the new house, and most of the ride there was quite pleasant, through rather quiet neighborhoods. I’ll have to check out the part of the ride that goes downtown, but I’m feeling good about this new ride. It’s longer and hillier than my current commute, but that may even be a good thing.

Here are a few shots of the new house. Technically it’s a townhouse, but it’s only connected to one other house, and the neighborhood just feels like a normal neighborhood, not a big complex. Ours is the left half.

More on the house later … more about the ride now. I had planned a 42-mile route, but as I said, I didn’t really have a lot of time. So rather than head out of town on the west side, I turned back toward the east and rode over to do one of my usual training rides, the Water Works route. I’m happy to say that this route will still be easily accessible from the new location.

I had some great views of a foggy, frozen-over Lake Monroe for a couple different points in the ride.

I headed back toward our current home.

I’m excited about our new house. Admittedly, I have some trepidation about the fact that it’s on a different side of town; my riding area is going to change a bit. This means some of my current favorite riding spots will be an additional six miles away or so (Yellowwood State Forest, in particular). But on the other hand, the west and south sides will be more accessible. It will be interesting to become better acquainted with these areas.

Of course, this all depends on the house purchase going through. Wish us luck!

For those of you who started reading my blog recently, we moved here (near Wilkes-Barre, PA) from Bloomington last October when Sarah took a job in Wilkes-Barre. Since we moved here, we have enjoyed some wonderful adventures in the mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, we have found that while the surrounding land is beautiful, this city is not for us. I could go into dozens of things we don’t like, but I don’t think that would be productive.

When we started talking about moving away from this city, we considered looking at various other areas, but we quickly found that every place we considered, we compared to Bloomington. Once we realized that, it didn’t take long to decide that we should simply move back. Here are a few things we love about Bloomington:

1. It’s near both of our families and friends.
2. It’s a small town.
3. It’s a college town. This is great not only because of the college itself but also because of all the culture and other things the university brings.
4. There are lots of great recreational opportunities. It may lack the mountains we have here in PA, but things are more accessible there. Bloomington has at least four state parks and state forests and one national forest, all within a 30 minute drive (this means they’re all bikable, too).  If you go further, there are plenty more options. In contrast, here in PA we have to drive for at least an hour to get to most of the parks. And the Bloomington area is much more bike friendly than Wilkes-Barre.
5. Bloomington feels like home.

We will certainly miss the beautiful mountains and rugged Pennsylvania terrain. But Bloomington is quite beautiful in its own right; it’s just not mountainous. In a lot of ways, this is advantageous. For instance, I’m really looking forward to being able to ride without every ride being an epic one. And the more accommodating terrain will make it easier for me to increase my mileage. At the same time, the Bloomington area is hilly enough to provide ample challenges.

All things considered, the move will be bittersweet. We are hoping we can make the most of the things Pennsylvania has to offer while we’re still here. Ultimately, though, we’re really looking forward to going home — and staying there.

Scene at O’Hare International Airport

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport

“Meditation Room” At W-B/Scranton Airport

Saturday morning, we woke up and I peeked out the window to get my first glimpse of the area during daylight hours. I saw a bunch of chain stores, and mountains in the distance. Pretty damn cool, since I didn’t really get to see the mountains at all the night before.

First glimpse of Wilkes-Barre

To get to our appointments, we had to drive across town on 309, one of the major roads. This gave us some great views of the city and surrounding area.

Wilkes-Barre, as seen from 309

309

Bridge across the Susquehanna River

We spent Saturday touring apartment complexes and rental houses and calling others to attempt to find something suitable. Frankly, it was pretty frustrating. Even the apartment complex we thought would be a pretty safe bet turned out not to be a good option at all. Some houses were decrepit, in bad neighborhoods, or both. In the process, we did get to see a lot of the area and got to know our way around a little bit. We were mostly interested in living in Kingston, a smaller borough right across the Susquehanna River from Wilkes-Barre.

A Kingston neighborhood

Looking toward Edwardsville, and the mountains

Looking down on the valley from the top of a hill

We also spent some time in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

Someone painting a mural

Staircase

YMCA

Osterhout Free Library

Inside the library

Another shot inside the library

Church

The square, downtown

Around Town Bicycles

Bike Shop Parking Only

We eventually found a good place to live in Kingston — we’ll be renting half a duplex, 3 bedrooms, two stories, plus basement and attic, and a small fenced yard for the dog. All for the same price as the 2-bedroom apartment we have now.

The front of the house. Left half is hours.

Back yard (fence to be completed, debris cleared away)

Our neighborhood

We also managed to go for a couple of drives in the mountains while we were there. The fall colors are a lot further ahead there than they are here. One drive included a precipitous gravel road up the side of a mountain, with some switchbacks and quite steep sections, and even some rocks forming small rock gardens in the middle of the road — driven in our rented PT Cruiser. Man, that car sucks. But it survived. And we only nearly hit a couple of deer.

View from near the top of one mountain

Mountains

An industrial complex nestled in the mountains — strange juxtaposition

Driving through the Endless Mountains

We only got a small taste of the beautiful country in the area, but it’s certainly whet my appetite. I’m excited about cycling there, but some of these roads are just incredibly steep, for a long time. I’ve got a real challenge cut out for me.

Wilkes-Barre is a city of about 40,000 people in eastern Pennsylvania, although it’s part of a larger metro area with Scranton and some smaller towns. It’s situated between the Endless Mountains and the Pocono Mountains,  about 2 hours from New York city, and two hours from Philly.

At this stage, I don’t know a lot about the city, or the area, but I’m learning. I will keep the job I have and work remotely. (I just realized this will mean no more commute! Horror of horrors! Oddly enough, I’ll actually miss my commute.)

I’m very excited about her job, and about living in a new place near some mountains, and exploring the area. It’s bittersweet, though, because we also love this area, and we’ll miss our families, friends, and riding buddies.

This will also mean finding all new cycling routes and mountain biking trails … I’ll miss some of the rides we have here, but I am betting that the mountains will provide all kinds of fun new challenges. I’m used to hills, and I enjoy them, but this will be taking it to the next level.

Also of note, we’re moving just late enough that I will be able to do my favorite ride of the year here, the Brown County Breakdown. It’ll be one last excellent hurrah with my mountain biking buddies (until I come back to visit). I won’t be able to ride the Hilly Hundred, but while that is also a fun ride, if I had to pick between the Breakdown and the Hilly, I’d choose the Breakdown every time.

It looks like we’ll be going to Wilkes-Barre next weekend, hopefully, to look at apartments and whatnot. It’s hard to believe this is really happening. It’s very exciting.