Ride to work

I saw this blog the other day and the author said that some other bloggers where encouraging him to document his morning commute. Seemed like a boring exercise but then I started to think about it. The author documented fun and interesting places along the way. Restaurants he had been too, bars he had been escorted out of and historical monuments along the way. Well I don't pass a lot of history on my way to work but here goes nothing.

A Few background items.

• Ride - 2004 Infiniti G35 sedan.
• Destination - North Scottsdale Airpark. Starting Point - Gilbert, AZ approximately 34 miles one way.
• Refreshments - Diet Coke, an apple and some trial mix. I usually drink coffee on the way to work but I can't stand my own coffee. Lorry should have a fresh pot when I get there.
• Time - 6:24 am ETA Scottsdale 7:25. One hour exactly.
• Entertainment - I have Sirius satellite radio and an IPOD. Today I am going to listen to NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. One of my favorite talk shows. At this hour in the morning I get the previous day's show, so I am always 24 hours behind. Last Friday's guest was David Cronenberg the film director. I thought A History of Violence sucked and he is not convincing me otherwise. So I cut over to our local sports talk radio, 910 KMVP, Bickley and MJ. I need to find out what the hell happen to my NCAA Brackets, they are a mess. They spend most of the drive talking about a woman basketball player who dunked the ball twice during a tournament game. Just what I needed to be informed about.

I don't pass any interesting places along the way but two things to notice about my commute.

1. The length that drivers will go to in order to avoid the freeways. This is some of the worst traffic in the country and although I don't save a significant amount of time in going my indirect route at least I am moving forward the whole time. That start and stop stuff is dangerous and hard on your car. I like to cruise about 40 miles an hour and veg out.
2. The amount of constuction going on, both on the Indian Reservation and in Scottsdale. In Scottsdale every ounce of vacant land is being developed. If there is 1/50th of an acre vacant some developer will buy it and put another strip mall there. I am all for free enterprise and the opportunities that development brings but my gosh. I hope some of these guys take it in the shorts.

Ok, so I am going to head north through Gilbert and bypass the U.S. 60 freeway heading west. I am going forego that freeway and take city streets through Mesa, Arizona which borders the Salt River Maricopa Indian Community. Again I have another opportunity to get on a freeway , but the traffic is still to heavy. So I am going to cut across the Indian Reservation, where the speed limit is 35 MPH until I get to Chaparral rd. That intersects the 101 freeway northbound. By then the bottle neck should let up a bit and I should be able to go 50 the rest of the way, approximately 11 miles via the freeway.

Here we go !

Okay at this point I have too many images to upload to the blog, plus I don't like the formating so I am redirecting you to a page on our webserver.

http://206.80.214.134/Ridetowork.htm

KM