Rocky Hillside

The DriveLessDenver folks are having fun. At least it sounds as if they are having fun.

Here's Kevin. (Read the whole thing.):

I am so fast.

So very, very fast. The wind blows through the notches in my helmet and reminds me I'm alive. It sweeps the hair on my arms around like amber waves of grain and makes my t-shirt into a superhero's cape. I coast along paths near creeks and rivers and happy families and pigeons. . . . I am so, so fast.

And you, car people, you are so slow. So humorously slow! Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to be smug here, to be arrogant. I mean, I used to be one of you. I know what you're going through as you startstopstartstop at every redlightgreenlightredlightgreenlight. I know what it feels like to alternate between speed and stagnation, what it feels like to cover ten blocks in ten minutes, then have to putter for another five while you look for a parking spot. It's infuriating. Excruciating even. And I feel your pain.

John is experiencing why I avoid the bus when I can. Inconvenient schedules and delays. Since I can ride about seven or eight urban miles in a half hour, waiting for the bus usually doesn't make much sense.

John's biggest problem isn't really the bus. His problem is that he lives in one of the most god-forsaken, car-dominated suburbs in the U.S - Parker, Colorado. (Whenever I see a cell-phone distracted, arrogant, SOB, SUV, I think to myself that the person has wandered in from the beige wasteland of Tom Tancredo's Parker.) John's problem is compounded by the fact that he apparently works someplace else.

The fact that John would be giving car-lite a try is amazing, and he deserves a great deal of credit. I didn't know that anyone in Parker would consider taking a bus except cleaning ladies. His neighbors, if they have noticed, must think he has slipped a cog.

[More:]

Last weekend I found out that there is pretty much no mass transit options in Parker on the weekends. The P route (park-n-ride) is only Monday - Friday. The 410 route (very convenient route through Parker for shopping) is also Monday - Friday.

. . .

FWIW, I also used Sky Ride on Monday for a business trip to Houston. I found that even though my park-n-ride has a 'Sky Ride' sign on it, it is no longer served by the Sky Ride service.

The trip home was a little frustrating as the skyride bus to to the lightrail station was late, and then the 410 to the Parker PNR station was also late...

Nick took the bus up to a little mountain town for hiking and bouldering. One of the amazing things about living in Denver is that this is possible - it's actually possible to take the bus to a downhill ski area in the winter:

On Monday, I took a regional bus up to Nederland to visit another friend. We ended up going hiking up Eldorado Canyon. It was a beautiful day and even got to do some bouldering (rock climbing without equipment.. but also a few feet from the ground).

Later, we took the bus back down to Boulder and had dinner before I took the return trip home.