Making Money Riding Bikes.

I'm writing this on Saturday - I had to work today, so I finally manned up and rode in. I'm hoping that this breaks the seal and I'm back on the riding "tip", as they say in the hip hop lyrics. I needed to get back on two wheels anyway, because as some of you might have heard, I'm riding in a big ride in Kansas City in October...

I ride for several reasons; to improve my health, to be "green", but mostly because I enjoy it. I have a secret reason to ride as well; I love free stuff. "Free Stuff?" you say incredulously, "How does one get free stuff when on a bicycle?".

Because people are forever dropping stuff out of their cars, that's why. I was riding my normal commute at the tail end of last summer, and as I was descending the hill near the Plano police department I spotted what looked like an iPhone in the street - and it was an iPhone. I slowed down, swung around, grabbed it and threw it in my trunk bag. It looked like the phone had been run over, as the display was shattered - but when I got to the office and plugged it in, it still powered up and came up in my iTunes. Unfortunately the owner had never filled out the owner info, and I was unable to figure out how to find them. The phone must have been new, as it had no music, photos, contacts, or anything on it. I messed with it for a little while, looked up the "finders keepers" rule in the "playground laws" books that line my office, and then put up an ad on Craigslist. I sold the phone for $100 by lunchtime.

Now an iPhone isn't a normal thing for me to see - actually, it's much more likely that I will find someone doing their laundry in Cottonwood Creek under the high five, as I did this morning.

Laundry Day! 

I know this looks like the famous picture of bigfoot, but it is actually a homeless (I assume) person doing his laundry in the creek. This is in a creek in the center of a very large city, directly under a giant highway overpass. I don't have a problem with this guy, per se, because I have never met him, but I do have a problem with the homeless hang out area on the path; apparently when doing your best hobo boozing, it's tons of fun to smash your empty bottles on the path for the cyclists to find on Monday morning - or Saturday, if they have to work.

Today it wasn't all homeless guys though - I actually found a pair of tickets to the Rangers vs Angels game for Sunday! I rode through an intersection at Waterview and Campbell, noticed them lying in the middle of the  street, took the chance, ran out and grabbed them. I expected to find a pair of tickets to an older game in my hand and then to pat myself on the back for picking up litter, but no, these were still "good" tickets. I finished my ride to the office, where I am such a bigshot that I had one of my lackeys waiting to let me in. (I forget my keys a lot). 

Tickets and lackey in the background

I am a big Ranger fan, but I'm actually going to a game on Wednesday anyway, so I offered the tickets to my lackey, who enthusiastically accepted. What I neglected to tell him was that I also grabbed an envelope out of the street that had originally contained the tickets - along with fourteen others. The tickets I found were seat one and seat ten. So when he goes to the game on Sunday with his found tickets, his seats will be mixed in with the people from the office party, or church group, or MMA fanclub that lost just two out of sixteen tickets. 

I'm sure it will be a great game! Go Rangers! 

Early morning battery going down.

I rode in today, and I thought I'd share my ride with you. First, I was very excited to see that the trail passing under 75 at Renner is complete. I rode down there in March to check on the progress and found this:

Unfinished trail in March

This morning I checked again, and was happy to find this:

Finished path under Central Expressway

I happily rode under Central and through Richardson, once again enjoying my private superhighway to the office. I rarely see any riders until I hit the UT Dallas campus, and today was no different. Sometimes I feel like all of these paths and lanes are too good to be true, and wonder how cities can afford to make this trail system just for me. 

After Richardson it's on to Dallas and the Cottonwood trail. I love the path that runs underneath the High Five, but lately I've seen more and more people living under the bridge down there. They leave me alone, but I have the sneaking suspicion that they are responsible for the obstacle course of broken glass that I find on the trail once or twice a week. On that note, if you are riding a trail and see someone coming from the opposite direction, give them a heads up about the glass. Please. 

After my duel with the troll glass, I come to my favorite bridge. Most mornings, when I don't stop, I see a couple of cranes who are nesting below. Today I stopped and of course saw no cranes. 

In this picture: no cranes.

After this bridge I shoot through a neighborhood and to the second underpass the city built for me. 

This takes me under Forest, which is bizzay. 

This new trail takes me under Forest lane and connects me with the White Rock Trail. Until they opened this underpass I used to have to cross Forest at the Park and Ride - where I was competing with buses, Forest Lane, and traffic coming out of the Racetrac. Now I shoot under all of that and come to my other favorite new bridge. 

Also, no cranes. 

This bridge takes me to the White Rock Trail, and in a few minutes I am at my office. When I get to my office, my Runkeeper app looks like this (this is door to door mileage). 

Suck it, Contador.

And then I immediately get this message: 

Why can I not buy a spare battery? 

I was using the GPS for my speedometer, and the 3g to listen to the radio, but I think it's a little silly that a fully charged iPhone can't last more than an hour doing those two things. 

I hope you enjoyed our ride today. I will probably ride home in the heat, because after this weekend, 14 miles at 105 degrees should be a breeze.