Life Tell me about your commute. - Page 2

**Rain Man** · 12-08-2011, 12:06 PM

Not just the length. What do you do? Where is your mind? Do you listen to the radio? Do you make a stop along the way? Do you carpool, take kids to school, drop off a spouse? Do you pick up hitchhikers? Or hitchhike? Do you walk? Bus? Drive? Take a ferry? Are you thinking about work or football? Do you curse at other commuters? How's the traffic? What landmarks do you see? Do you eat or drink along the way?

I walk to work 95 percent of the time. Occasionally I'll take a bus or drive if I have something going on at work. It's 1.85 miles each way and I walk slow, so it's about 35 minutes. Occasionally I'll listen to my iPod, and sometimes I use the time to call my parents or my sister.

On the way in, I'm thinking a lot about work and how I'll organize my day, and on the way home I'm usually thinking about random things. I walk a generally different route each day because the streets are a grid, so I randomly walk up streets depending on how I hit the stop lights. It's a relatively busy urban area, so I have to keep an eye out for traffic a lot.

I have three phases of my walk. First, there's a residential neighborhood (8 to 15 blocks, depending on route) that tends to be young and safe. It's mostly old circa-1900 houses that have been converted to apartments or 30-unit brick apartments that went up in the 60s or later. It's the most densely populated neighborhood in Colorado. Second, there's a commercial/park area (4 to 15 blocks, depending on route) where you have some low-rent people wandering around looking suspicious, but who are generally harmless unless their drug deal goes bad. Third, there's the downtown area (maybe a dozen blocks) which is a lot of tourists and office workers and is reasonably upscale. The downtown area is pedestrian only on the main drag and has lots of walkers, though cars cross it at each intersection.

I walk by the state capitol every day, often cutting across the parking lot, and I see the big scrolling LED light of the newspaper building that tells me today's news headlines. There's a really big fountain and some really small fountains that I walk by in the summer, all in the downtown part, and the pedestrian area is lined with trees that get lots of Christmas lights this time of year. I also walk by the tallest building in Colorado, which apparently has 56 floors, and sometimes by the main cathedral of Colorado. The cathedral has two spires, one of which got hit by lightning a few years back and fell onto the busy street, miraculously not killing anyone, but if you look close you can now see where one of the spires is a slightly different color of stone.

In good weather there's a beggar guy who hangs out outside the door to my office building and he rattles his cup of change at me. We think he likes our office building because it gets a lot of traffic from the five story health club at the top. I also have to dodge people selling the "homeless newspaper" on at least two corners that I pass, and the occasional mobile panhandler. My office is in the convention part of downtown with the convention center and several massive hotels, so I also see lots of convention-goers with their little name tag necklace thingies.

In the morning, the restaurants are all closed, but in the evening they're open. In good weather several of them have outside seating so I get to see what they're all ordering. I also walk by the Hard Rock Cafe, which pipes classic rock out onto the pedestrian mall.

I never eat or drink on my commute. Maybe once every couple of months I'll buy a bagel on my way in (cranberry, no cream cheese, not sliced, not toasted, just give it to me out of the basket, please) at a bagel shop a couple of blocks from my house.

That's my commute. Tell me about yours.

seclark · 12-08-2011, 12:51 PM

drive 20 to work. all is either county rock, or state blacktop. traffic is mostly deer, quail, phesant and amish buggy. driving home from work is often longer, because i like to take more county rock roads to look for wildlife and kind of unwind.

in the morning, i stop once every couple days to pick up a can of chew. in the evening i stop every once every couple days to pick up some beer to take home. both ways, i start listening to sports talk radio(kc or stl) until i get pissed, then plug in a cd.

going to work, i think about how much crap i'll have to deal w/that day. going home, i think about how much crap i had to deal w/that day.

sec

Frosty · 12-08-2011, 12:51 PM

I leave for work at around 4:45 am so it's dark half the year. I only have 13 miles one way, so there isn't much time to do anything but listen to a couple of songs on the iPod as I scan for deer.

If I end up running late, I get caught up in the 6AM morons, which can be entertaining and frustrating.

rageeumr · 12-08-2011, 01:07 PM

I drop my son off at daycare in the mornings. Before kids, I liked to get into work at 7 to give me an hour of productive time before the phone started ringing. Unfortunately, his daycare doesn't open until 7, so I'm typically there in the drive waiting when they unlock the doors. They love that.

I listen to the Border Patrol in the morning. Fescoe is an asshat, so if the BP goes to commercial, I'll switch over to my iPod. Due to the programming, I tend to think a lot about sports on the drive. My mind only drifts to work if I have an important meeting or obligation that day.

The whole process takes me about 30 minutes to go 10 miles (including the drop off). Not terrible and I don't have to deal with the highways. My entire drive is a vista of suburban Johnson County. Neighborhoods, strip malls and the like. The route I take frequently has runners on it, which can lead to some early morning ogling of runner chicks.

About once a month in the summer time, I'll drive my car to the daycare, and then take my bike the rest of the way into work (~9 miles). I'd love to do it more often, but I'm in construction, so I'm constantly having to go places in the middle of the day. I have to wait for days when I don't have meetings, and those tend to be pretty few and far between.

About once a week I'll stop at Starbucks or Latteland for coffee. It's a habit I'd like to break. I get pretty foo-foo stuff, and it's hard on the waistline and the wallet.

Since my daughter was born (September) I've also been in charge of the afternoon pick-up at daycare. Very similar to the morning drive in length and duration. I typically listen to Nick Wright, switching to KK when Wright breaks. If they both are on break (happens a lot) I go to the iPod.

**Bearcat** · 12-08-2011, 01:11 PM

It's a 7-10 minute drive by highway or ~12 minutes otherwise. I decide on which one each morning I drive over the highway and look at the traffic. Either way, I spend those minutes listening to music and yelling at people to speed up or get out of the freakin' fast lane.

Before that, my commute was 0.5 mile, which was wonderful, and before that I telecommuted for about a year. I don't know how people drive 30+ minutes each way, unless there's no traffic... I drive across town quite a bit, but I don't have the patience for a commute like OP to downtown, especially in bad weather (and bad weather to KC drivers can mean sprinkles, snow flurries, a wet road 3 days after it snowed, dark clouds in the area...).

**SAUTO** · 12-08-2011, 01:11 PM

a block and a half, no stops. takes about a minute. if im driving slow.

hell i dont even scrape off my windshield i just hang my head out of the window.

**HemiEd** · 12-08-2011, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seclark

drive 20 to work. all is either county rock, or state blacktop. traffic is mostly deer, quail, phesant and amish buggy. driving home from work is often longer, because i like to take more county rock roads to look for wildlife and kind of unwind.

in the morning, i stop once every couple days to pick up a can of chew. in the evening i stop every once every couple days to pick up some beer to take home. both ways, i start listening to sports talk radio(kc or stl) until i get pissed, then plug in a cd.

going to work, i think about how much crap i'll have to deal w/that day. going home, i think about how much crap i had to deal w/that day.

sec

Nice, that sounds like an enjoyable drive. What kind of chew? I tried that once and it triggered my gag reflex.

rageeumr · 12-08-2011, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bearcat

(and bad weather to KC drivers can mean sprinkles, snow flurries, a wet road 3 days after it snowed, dark clouds in the area...).

Word. 1/4" of snow this week and cars were sliding around like curling stones. We don't live in Arizona people. It does this every year.

seclark · 12-08-2011, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Nice, that sounds like an enjoyable drive. What kind of chew? I tried that once and it triggered my gag reflex.

cope long cut...nasty habit. you're lucky.
sec

gpsdude · 12-08-2011, 01:18 PM

30 Minutes, early in the morning, off early afternoon. If I'm lucky, smoking a j on the way home makes everything just right..................
Don't even get pissed at other drivers

whoman69 · 12-08-2011, 01:23 PM

Takes 20-25 minutes to get across town especially since they've had construction on my route the last two years and its still not done. I usually listen to the radio but we only have three music stations worth a crap that is down to two right now because the other plays Christmas music all November and December. I'll also listen to the ESPN network here in town but not on the ride home because they usually have hs sports or ISU. I used to have to walk four blocks from my parking garage but have one now that is only a block away. I didn't mind when the weather was better, but when its gets below 20 with high winds and snow...

**Rain Man** · 12-08-2011, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

a block and a half, no stops. takes about a minute. if im driving slow.

hell i dont even scrape off my windshield i just hang my head out of the window.

You drive a block and a half? Is there some sort of cheetah preserve between you and work?

seclark · 12-08-2011, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You drive a block and a half? Is there some sort of cheetah preserve between you and work?

he probably pays himself mileage.
sec

The Poz · 12-08-2011, 02:15 PM

20 minute walk through downtown. Take different routes, try different coffee shops. Highlight of workday.

**mlyonsd** · 12-08-2011, 02:16 PM

Work is 41 miles one way. 3 miles gravel, 3 miles blacktop, 35 miles interstate. Then about 1/4 mile to the parking lot.

On the way down in the morning I listen to one specific old rock radio station. Mainly because the two DJ's are funny.

Everyday on the way home I crack the window and smoke a Blackstone Cherry cigar and listen to my mp3 that's loaded with a conglomerate of songs I've liked over the years.

Been doing that drive for 15 years. Don't mind it a bit except for bad weather in the winter.

Stewie · 12-08-2011, 02:16 PM

10-15 minutes each way depending on traffic.

I usually leave while it's still dark outside. I open the garage door and the deer scatter this time of year. They love my red oak's acorns.

The first couple of miles are pleasant since it's semi-rural with a golf course along the way. Sometimes I'll stop at what has to be the cleanest gas station ever. It's run by an Indian gentleman and has fresh donuts from the neighboring donut shop and a killer coffee bar. They also sell 32 ounce fountain drinks for 49 cents. Did I mention he keeps the place spotless?

Once I hit the highway I listen to sports talk radio. The only other interesting thing (since my exit is an industrial area) is seeing what beer trucks are at the beer distributorship. Some of the small breweries have cool artwork on their trucks.

The drive home is just that. Trying to get home unless I have errands to run.

12-08-2011, 12:06 PM
Rain Man Seize life. Be an ermine. Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $-692449 VARSITY	Tell me about your commute. Not just the length. What do you do? Where is your mind? Do you listen to the radio? Do you make a stop along the way? Do you carpool, take kids to school, drop off a spouse? Do you pick up hitchhikers? Or hitchhike? Do you walk? Bus? Drive? Take a ferry? Are you thinking about work or football? Do you curse at other commuters? How's the traffic? What landmarks do you see? Do you eat or drink along the way? I walk to work 95 percent of the time. Occasionally I'll take a bus or drive if I have something going on at work. It's 1.85 miles each way and I walk slow, so it's about 35 minutes. Occasionally I'll listen to my iPod, and sometimes I use the time to call my parents or my sister. On the way in, I'm thinking a lot about work and how I'll organize my day, and on the way home I'm usually thinking about random things. I walk a generally different route each day because the streets are a grid, so I randomly walk up streets depending on how I hit the stop lights. It's a relatively busy urban area, so I have to keep an eye out for traffic a lot. I have three phases of my walk. First, there's a residential neighborhood (8 to 15 blocks, depending on route) that tends to be young and safe. It's mostly old circa-1900 houses that have been converted to apartments or 30-unit brick apartments that went up in the 60s or later. It's the most densely populated neighborhood in Colorado. Second, there's a commercial/park area (4 to 15 blocks, depending on route) where you have some low-rent people wandering around looking suspicious, but who are generally harmless unless their drug deal goes bad. Third, there's the downtown area (maybe a dozen blocks) which is a lot of tourists and office workers and is reasonably upscale. The downtown area is pedestrian only on the main drag and has lots of walkers, though cars cross it at each intersection. I walk by the state capitol every day, often cutting across the parking lot, and I see the big scrolling LED light of the newspaper building that tells me today's news headlines. There's a really big fountain and some really small fountains that I walk by in the summer, all in the downtown part, and the pedestrian area is lined with trees that get lots of Christmas lights this time of year. I also walk by the tallest building in Colorado, which apparently has 56 floors, and sometimes by the main cathedral of Colorado. The cathedral has two spires, one of which got hit by lightning a few years back and fell onto the busy street, miraculously not killing anyone, but if you look close you can now see where one of the spires is a slightly different color of stone. In good weather there's a beggar guy who hangs out outside the door to my office building and he rattles his cup of change at me. We think he likes our office building because it gets a lot of traffic from the five story health club at the top. I also have to dodge people selling the "homeless newspaper" on at least two corners that I pass, and the occasional mobile panhandler. My office is in the convention part of downtown with the convention center and several massive hotels, so I also see lots of convention-goers with their little name tag necklace thingies. In the morning, the restaurants are all closed, but in the evening they're open. In good weather several of them have outside seating so I get to see what they're all ordering. I also walk by the Hard Rock Cafe, which pipes classic rock out onto the pedestrian mall. I never eat or drink on my commute. Maybe once every couple of months I'll buy a bagel on my way in (cranberry, no cream cheese, not sliced, not toasted, just give it to me out of the basket, please) at a bagel shop a couple of blocks from my house. That's my commute. Tell me about yours.
Posts: 145,520

12-08-2011, 12:51 PM	#16
seclark MVP Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: nemo Casino cash: $-410100	drive 20 to work. all is either county rock, or state blacktop. traffic is mostly deer, quail, phesant and amish buggy. driving home from work is often longer, because i like to take more county rock roads to look for wildlife and kind of unwind. in the morning, i stop once every couple days to pick up a can of chew. in the evening i stop every once every couple days to pick up some beer to take home. both ways, i start listening to sports talk radio(kc or stl) until i get pissed, then plug in a cd. going to work, i think about how much crap i'll have to deal w/that day. going home, i think about how much crap i had to deal w/that day. sec __________________ "Mr. seclark. Wrong for gravy, wrong for jelly, wrong for biscuits." -rj "If every Planeteer who was disliked by another Planeteer stopped being a Planeteer we wouldn't have any Planeteers." -rj
Posts: 13,447

12-08-2011, 12:51 PM	#17
Frosty Go Beavers! Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Washington Casino cash: $3358243	I leave for work at around 4:45 am so it's dark half the year. I only have 13 miles one way, so there isn't much time to do anything but listen to a couple of songs on the iPod as I scan for deer. If I end up running late, I get caught up in the 6AM morons, which can be entertaining and frustrating.
Posts: 14,541

12-08-2011, 01:07 PM	#18
rageeumr Veteran Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: St. Louis :( Casino cash: $9989900	I drop my son off at daycare in the mornings. Before kids, I liked to get into work at 7 to give me an hour of productive time before the phone started ringing. Unfortunately, his daycare doesn't open until 7, so I'm typically there in the drive waiting when they unlock the doors. They love that. I listen to the Border Patrol in the morning. Fescoe is an asshat, so if the BP goes to commercial, I'll switch over to my iPod. Due to the programming, I tend to think a lot about sports on the drive. My mind only drifts to work if I have an important meeting or obligation that day. The whole process takes me about 30 minutes to go 10 miles (including the drop off). Not terrible and I don't have to deal with the highways. My entire drive is a vista of suburban Johnson County. Neighborhoods, strip malls and the like. The route I take frequently has runners on it, which can lead to some early morning ogling of runner chicks. About once a month in the summer time, I'll drive my car to the daycare, and then take my bike the rest of the way into work (~9 miles). I'd love to do it more often, but I'm in construction, so I'm constantly having to go places in the middle of the day. I have to wait for days when I don't have meetings, and those tend to be pretty few and far between. About once a week I'll stop at Starbucks or Latteland for coffee. It's a habit I'd like to break. I get pretty foo-foo stuff, and it's hard on the waistline and the wallet. Since my daughter was born (September) I've also been in charge of the afternoon pick-up at daycare. Very similar to the morning drive in length and duration. I typically listen to Nick Wright, switching to KK when Wright breaks. If they both are on break (happens a lot) I go to the iPod.
Posts: 2,313

12-08-2011, 01:11 PM	#19
Bearcat Would an idiot do that? Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Arizona Casino cash: $-1085069	It's a 7-10 minute drive by highway or ~12 minutes otherwise. I decide on which one each morning I drive over the highway and look at the traffic. Either way, I spend those minutes listening to music and yelling at people to speed up or get out of the freakin' fast lane. Before that, my commute was 0.5 mile, which was wonderful, and before that I telecommuted for about a year. I don't know how people drive 30+ minutes each way, unless there's no traffic... I drive across town quite a bit, but I don't have the patience for a commute like OP to downtown, especially in bad weather (and bad weather to KC drivers can mean sprinkles, snow flurries, a wet road 3 days after it snowed, dark clouds in the area...). __________________
Posts: 59,626

12-08-2011, 01:11 PM	#20
SAUTO Shit Join Date: Jun 2008 Casino cash: $10039067	a block and a half, no stops. takes about a minute. if im driving slow. hell i dont even scrape off my windshield i just hang my head out of the window.
Posts: 55,715

12-08-2011, 01:18 PM	#24
gpsdude Starter Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Belton Casino cash: $2375562	30 Minutes, early in the morning, off early afternoon. If I'm lucky, smoking a j on the way home makes everything just right.................. Don't even get pissed at other drivers
Posts: 244

12-08-2011, 02:15 PM	#28
The Poz Enjoyer of things Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Toronto Casino cash: $10012210	20 minute walk through downtown. Take different routes, try different coffee shops. Highlight of workday.
Posts: 2,178

12-08-2011, 02:16 PM	#29
mlyonsd Supporter Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Spink, SD Casino cash: $-2236238	Work is 41 miles one way. 3 miles gravel, 3 miles blacktop, 35 miles interstate. Then about 1/4 mile to the parking lot. On the way down in the morning I listen to one specific old rock radio station. Mainly because the two DJ's are funny. Everyday on the way home I crack the window and smoke a Blackstone Cherry cigar and listen to my mp3 that's loaded with a conglomerate of songs I've liked over the years. Been doing that drive for 15 years. Don't mind it a bit except for bad weather in the winter. Last edited by mlyonsd; 12-08-2011 at 02:27 PM..
Posts: 39,480

12-08-2011, 02:16 PM	#30
Stewie MVP Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: West of the Equator Casino cash: $-1830099	10-15 minutes each way depending on traffic. I usually leave while it's still dark outside. I open the garage door and the deer scatter this time of year. They love my red oak's acorns. The first couple of miles are pleasant since it's semi-rural with a golf course along the way. Sometimes I'll stop at what has to be the cleanest gas station ever. It's run by an Indian gentleman and has fresh donuts from the neighboring donut shop and a killer coffee bar. They also sell 32 ounce fountain drinks for 49 cents. Did I mention he keeps the place spotless? Once I hit the highway I listen to sports talk radio. The only other interesting thing (since my exit is an industrial area) is seeing what beer trucks are at the beer distributorship. Some of the small breweries have cool artwork on their trucks. The drive home is just that. Trying to get home unless I have errands to run.
Posts: 13,871