15,000 Mile Milestone

When I decided to take a ride after dinner last evening I wasn't intending to set a new milestone, nor did I even realize that I was on the verge of doing so until a casual glance at the odometer revealed that I was at 14,995 miles.  I had to stop and think for a bit about where to head so I'd be sure of the opportunity to pull over safely to take a picture of the big rollover when it happened.  A ride a few miles north and then across the bridge to the west side of the valley put me in a quiet neighborhood setting with plenty of cross streets down which to meander while watching the digits roll by in anticipation of the big moment.

I thought back to when I'd hit the 10,000 mile mark and wondered when it was, but it wasn't till I got back to the house and could dig into my old posts to find that it was on September 26th, two years ago.  Then it was a bit of math madness to see if I've been riding more or less since then than I had before.

Let's see...  It took me nearly three years, from October of '07 through September of '10, to rack up 10,000 miles, averaging approximately 3,333 miles per year.  Then it took me nearly two years, from September of '10 till just now to put on another 5,000 which averages out to about 2,500 miles per year.  I attribute the loss of average miles, at least in part to the longer commute I've had in the past two years, resulting in fewer bike trips to and from work on days when the weather didn't promise to be picture perfect for riding.  It doesn't matter, though, if I've been riding more or less, as long as I'm still enjoying it, which I am!

So, here it is.  The next big milestone...

And, here's where I was when it happened...

...near the corner of Susquehanna Ave. and 5th Street in West Wyoming.

To celebrate I went to a  Sheetz to score a milkshake which I planned to sip in their colorful picnic area, but it wasn't to be.  Their shake machine was on the fritz.  I could have gotten one next door at Dairy Queen at twice the price for half the amount but I didn't need one that much so off I went to where I'd planned to go when I'd first left the house.

I've posed a few "selfies," (pictures taken by and of one's self), in the past which I'd taken using the PennDOT traffic cameras and my or somebody else's cell phone, and it was part way through the past school year when I discovered another such camera in a location convenient for putting one's self into the picture that I'd planned to visit since school let out.  I'd just not yet gotten around to it, so that's where I was headed yesterday evening when I first noticed the reading on the odometer.

There I am waving in the larger red circle at the bottom of the frame, and that's the BV parked in the smaller circle.

Not a bad evening of riding at all!