The Monday Blues with the bonus addition of foul weather and bad luck to boot!

So this morning I woke up early as always before the sun is even up. I was out the door by 6 am and fully ready for the soggy rainy weather. Within the first 5 minutes I was soaked since my pants have formed holes in them from all the friction of riding at least 100 miles a week. My butt is the worst, it is wet and within minutes biting with freezing cold. its sad to me to see it rain this morning, all that beautiful white fluffy snow that made my weekend so awesome and let me build a kick ass igloo is all brown and melty. A slushy mess all over. 

2 miles into my ride and I hit my first major road block. For the first time this year the George Washington Bridge bike path is closed. I am so infuriated because I can see the path is cleared wide enough for at least a walker and a biker to make it. I am soaked and cold with no where to go. My only choice is to back track it up the hill to look to catch a bus. The little white bus that is sitting there waiting for more people before heading over the bridge turns out to be a big jerk. I pull up and sign if i can bring my bike in. not even a reply and the lady pulls up like she is leaving. She stops a little further up and lets some people in. So i go up to the door which is open and ask if i can get a ride since it is raining and the bike path is closed. I tell her I will wait till the bus is getting full so i can bring it on last. there are at least 3 people behind me waiting to get on as I ask. While my head is half inside the door she quickly says no and slams the door shut while pulling away further up. I am pretty sure she was going to try and pull further up to let people on but I tried to follow forcing her to pull away with a pretty empty bus. I may not have won, but she definitely lost out too! As that bus pulls off an NJ transit bus pulls up with one of those bike racks on it. he signals me to throw it on the front.

 I struggle with trying to figure out how it works with my glasses all fogged so he comes out to help me. He has never used it before either so we figure it out after a few seconds. I go to get on and all I have is a $20 so he says wait till we get there to get change. On the ride over the bridge I chat with the awesome drive and this cool old black guy sitting near the front. They have a serious interest in my winter riding as they both state they are fair weather riders. They both give me tips on which roads to take today because we are all sure the bike path is not going to be plowed. The black guy who has an epic beard that makes me think he is a super wise guru guy tries to convince me to take the subway. I have never done that either but he says its super easy. However, i am wet, cold, and very stubborn. I still for some reason look forward to the challenge of miserable hard days like today. As we are heading across I can see the path is clear all the way across the bridge...this bothers me immensely. When we get across everyone gets off and I ask about the fare, he smiles and say to have a great day don't worry about it, "just stay safe, keep having fun". 

I head down one of the main roads to avoid snowy side roads. Eventually I am heading down Broadway; while I have done this in the past, this is the busiest I have seen it this early in the morning with the worst conditions I have seen thus far riding. My glasses are fogged, there is not even the slightest shoulder because of all the snow piles on the side, everything is slippery, wet, and in some spots still icy. Even still I haul ass, My legs are feeling great and minus a few 18 wheeler trucks and long public transportation buses slowing me down and getting in my way I cruise. Its ironic because on the bus I thought for a second about taking the subway down just because I know I don't have a spare tire and I know how much it would suck to have a flat tire. just to change one in the cold would be terrible but without a spare i would be stuck walking pretty far to even get to a station. Well I guess thinking about something is sometimes enough to make it happen. So around 51st street my front tire sprung a leak! I knew right away because it was squirting water wildly up in the air every rotation of the tire. Although I had a fix-a-flat type substance in my tire that should clog a small hole. It didn't work because it was too wet out. UGGGHHH. So I made a nice long walk to the subway station. Where I realize I can't find my monthly subway pass mixed in with all my old partial passes. I get the lady at the booth to go through and at least combine my partials so I can get to work. luck is on my side because a guy opens the big door for me so I don't need to carry it over the turnstile. I do however miss my train by a second trying to figure out which train it is. I was already late so what was another 5 minutes anyway, right? On the train I feel like an outcast, I am dripping wet and take up so much of the train I am pretty sure everyone at least glances at me. The ride goes quick though and I almost take pride in being so miserable, I just hope I don't smell to much like soggy biker.

 I am super late for work by the time I get in...but I get in under the radar and head straight to work so no one notices I am late. Just can't do it again! What a start to a Monday morning. Work as usual on Monday was tough as usual but at least a little nicer then my morning commute.  Still can't keep this crazy kid down though, smiles still on my face.

*Just so we are all clear I did not take any of these photo's I used photo's off Google images search.  Figure its better to be safer while riding in the rain.