8 mile

Nope, 8 mile doesn't have anything to do with Eminem. It's the number of miles I'm riding on my commute every day. I really wanted to continue my bike commuting. So far it is going well. Rochester has lots of trails. It is one of the top 20 bike cities in the US. After living in #1 (minneapolis) I can say there is a huge difference between #1 and "top 20". I'd hate to be in an unranked one. There are miles and miles of trails here, but it seems like a failed case of "Build them and they will ride." At most I see 2 or 3 other bikers on my morning ride. In Minneapolis on a nice day I could see over 100 riders on my 1 1/2 mile trip to work. Mayo does provide bike racks. My rough estimate is 100 slots available. I think the biggest obstacle is downtown. The cars aren't expecting bikers, the roads are narrow, patients don't know where they are going and there's this misconception that bikers should be on the sidewalk. People, it's illegal for me to be running into pedestrians on the sidewalk. I'm as far over in the shoulder as possible and following the rules of the road. No need to yell out of your car "get on the sidewalk." I was yelled at twice in May. I went to a "Learn to Bike to Work" class and it seems other people have had the same experience. 

The thing is Rochester should have a ton of bikers. As the director of parking and transportation explained on the first day of orientation, Mayo has a math problem. 10,000 employee parking spaces and 35,000 employees.   So there are lots of park and rides, shuttles and passes to ride the city buses downtown. Mayo is really very generous in figuring out ways to get employees downtown, but I'd have to say the parking situation is one of the most common complaints. Yet everyone talks about how great it is to live in a city with so little traffic. Ummmm....that's because 25,000 people are forced to take public transportation to work. Funny how so many people don't see how these correlate. It's like a city planner's dream. With so many employees within 2-5 miles radius of the clinic you'd think more would ride bikes.

So for my bike route, I hook up the Burley, ride 2 miles on beautiful trails to Penny's day care, drop off the burley in daycare's storage area and then ride 2 miles to downtown. I get a few strange looks from the moms. It isn't like Jardin where bike trailer parking is provided and often full by 8 am. Let me tell you though, Penny became extremely popular when we started riding the bike. Every morning when we walk in "Penny did you come on your mommy's bike? Can I come with you next time? can I put on your helmet?" I know from experience that at age 12 Penny will NOT find it cool that her mom bike commutes.

Here's  the great new trail that goes over the train tracks and freeway. This section is what I call the tunnel of chain link:

You can kind of see the trail switchbacks I climb to get on the bridge. Penny is usually yelling "faster mommy faster" It's like a free personal trainer.

 Photo about a mile into the ride. Isn't it pretty?

This was on Memorial Day. That's why Chris is in the photo. It was a beautiful morning for a ride.

 St. Assissi's is on the hill. I don't know much about it. I know there are sisters that still are part of St. Mary's Hospital. I'm not sure if this is where they live.

Then we went to breakfast at Mac's diner downtown. At Mac's, Penny's favorite breakfast eggs and toast is named the Phyllis!! We had to take a picture for grandma. (And yes, it is annoying that Penny wants the easiest breakfast ever at restaurants. We've give up ordering anything else though because she just whines after one bite of pancake "can I have eggs and toast?")

Downtown Rochester

They turned an old movie theater into a Barnes and Noble. It's really fun inside too.

The intricate details were left in tact.

A view of downtown buildings. The one straight ahead is the Gonda Building where many patients are seen.

Appropriately, Rochester has geese statues around town.

You can't really see this very well, but this is the Mayo building. It was built in the 1950s. I was told that they built one part of the building first, but they didn't want one set of marble to be aged by the weather and sun, while the other set remained perfect in storage. So they laid out the remaining marble in a field, then when they were ready to complete the building over 10 years later, the marble matched

This is the Plummer building. One of the Mayo brothers said his best day at work was the day he hired Dr. Plummer. Dr. Plummer actually became a doctor to please his mother. He wanted to be an architect. I understand he was a very good doctor, but he also got to try his hand at architecture and build this building in 1926. He traveled to Europe to get ideas so it is a mix of different styles. It also has a bell tower in top with 56 bells. They are played a few times a week. The massive doors have only been shut a few times. I think one was 9/11 and the funeral of JFK.

 Another shot of the Plummer building. Plummer also created the pneumatic tube system that delivered patients records through the buildings of the clinic. He also created the intercom phone system for the hospital. Both had never been done in hospitals before.

 Sculpture in the children's garden outside of Gonda

I don't have any photos of the route into downtown from Penny's day care. Nothing very interesting...strip malls and apartment buildings.

I'm going to try to ride through mid-October like I did last year in Minneapolis. We'll see if the weather holds out. Maybe one day Rochester will have more riders and one of the parking garages will look like this  bike one in Amsterdam.