First of all, I need a better phrase than running into or bumping into a friend on the bike path, especially after after yesterday’s “bike crash, sort of.” What do you say?

Anyhow, I ran into a couple friends today. En route to meet Kona-MinUte-riding Barbara at the zoo, I saw Brad plus one kid whiz by on his Big Dummy. I shouted a hello and he said he’d meet us after retrieving his other kid.

Upon leaving the zoo, I saw Dutch-bike-riding Sara wheeling her bike while her daughter slept on her back. Yes, bike seats work great for napping toddlers, but this nap started when they were inside the hardware store. So we all walked them home. It was quite the parade.

Then Barbara showed me her route to the zoo, using Woodland Park Avenue and cutting through Woodland Park. It’s much better than either of my routes:

1. 50th is just a bit too steep to be pleasant, not to mention having to cross like a pedestrian at Stone since there’s no left turn, which means waiting eight minutes (I timed it last time) for the two lights to change.
2. My usual route involves using the sidewalk of 45th/46th as soon as I cross west of Stone. The sidewalk is narrow and it there are several busy street crossing, but at least most of them are controlled by lights.

The park part of Barbara’s route was great and Woodland Park Avenue is nice and wide, but the unprotected crossings at 50th and Green Lake Way are pretty sucky. I’m still deciding which is the least of all the evils. I might really like this new route on the way to the zoo because having to wait for crossing openings in the middle of a hill climb is fine by me.

Today’s miles: 4
April miles: 217.1