In a word...

SCS demanded that I take one for the team and do the commute plan come hell or high water. I carted some tennis stuff back to school for storage and prepared for an afternoon outside the norm. I needed to pick up awards for our tennis picnic and the awards/trophy center lies about 8m from school but via a brutal, post-apocalyptic suburban hell known as Preston Hwy. After a meeting and a late start I rode the hwy to Hell in 95F temps. The section to the Watterson was fine but the traffic built up from there. Although various traffic-oriented cyclists would scoff at my plan, I was pressed for time so I used a mixture of sidewalks and the rough shoulder to make time, jumping the traffic by leaps. The section from Grade to Outer Loop was pretty damn obnoxious, but I found that it was rideable. I stored my awards box in the larger Ute bag and refilled my water at a Rally's and began my second leg. Instead of a 4-lane nightmare I used back streets and neighborhoods to work myself north toward the house. At about mile 21 at Btown and the Watterson I suddenly ran out of gas and got REALLY hot but I was able to spin my way slowly home.

It wasn't pleasant, but it WAS an excellent 2-wheel manifesto of what can be done, miserable and all. SCS.