12 Miles

I would like to point out that twelve miles is a long way. Especially when there are hills involved and you are on a bike, and there are various nasty junctions, red lights showing up just as you get to these junctions, and white vans. Especially the white vans. On my way to Bethany, I got carved up by a white van who thought that since I was going straight on and he wanted to turn left that instead of waiting for me to get out the way (and I wasn't even going that slowly), he would shoot ahead of me, veer across in front and then get down the other road. Which was a little startling to say the least--I hadn't noticed him indicating when I was stopped at the lights. But other than that, I made it without too much difficulty. I am now knackered though, probably thanks more to the hilly bits than the actual distance. And it was in three stages. I did three miles into town, stopped there for the library and a browse in Oxfam books which is one of the best places in Preston to shop for books (believe me, I have a lot, and you get to know these things...), and then did the next three miles out to Bethany. On the way home I did it straight. And guess what? It's a lot faster than getting the bus. On the way there, I followed the same route the bus would've done, and it didn't go past until I was actually turning in the road for Bethany. On the way back, I managed the journey in 27 minutes (I timed myself), from when I unchained my bike to when I stopped to open the gate at home. It takes about fifty to get the bus, change, and get the next bus.