From Beaches to Tunnels: My Unexpected Bicycle Adventure
When I woke up in the morning at 5:30am to meet an old friend for a sunrise ride, I had no idea I’d be getting a life-threatening adrenaline rush.
I rode thru a highway-speed car tunnel on my bicycle.
Yes, a car tunnel as in an underground roadway for motor vehicles completely surrounded by solid concrete walls and more roadways (or Earth?) overhead. And yes, a bicycle as in a small metal frame with two wheels, no motor and no sort of encapsulating design.. just my bare bones flying thru space on this little object right beside 2,000-pound killers.
I wish I had a picture to let you see for yourself, but for obvious reasons, I didn’t have my phone out.
As wild as it sounds as I read these words off of this page, in the moment, I wasn’t frightened at all.
My childhood friend, Marcus, was leading the way back into L.A. after we’d sat at the beach for a bit, enjoying watching the waves hit the shore.. and what had to be a hundred or so kids coincidentally congregate around the benches in Manhattan Beach where we’d decided to take a seat; we later found out it was the first day of Los Angeles County’s junior lifeguard summer camp.
Strava is an app that allows users to record their physical activities. Click to see the details of my ride on Strava to help plan your own!
We’d met up near the Midtown Shopping Center in Mid-City Los Angeles and taken a combination of neighborhood streets and bike-path-equipped Venice Blvd to the Ballona Creek Bike Path. We rode the Ballona Creek Bike Path to the coast and hopped on the Marvin Braude Bike Path headed south down to Manhattan Beach.
Other than the unpleasant smells from the less-than-beautiful Ballona Creek, that half of the trip was delightful! Once you get close to the marina, where some folks are fishing from the bridge and other are simply walking enjoying the sights, and you see the Pacific Ocean, there’s a small sense of accomplishment. Ahhhhh. Look at this.. beautiful! We’ve made it. Now the rest of the ride is easy peasy, all you’re doing is enjoying the ocean view from the seat of your saddle.
When we decided we no longer wanted to be the two random adults (and then Black, at that), sitting among this slew of kids (primarily white, with sprinkles of Asians) that had surrounded us, we left the beach path and headed up to one of the bike-friendly Manhattan Beach roads.
We could’ve taken the exact route back to Mid-City Los Angeles that we’d taken to get to Manhattan Beach, but why not switch it up?!
(I have quite the aversion to unpleasant smells; enduring the Ballona Creek essence on the way to the beach was one thing, at least I get a little dopamine release when I hit the coast to erase my noes’ woes, but once in a day was enough for me. I wanted to take a different route back.)
A childhood friend of mine from Louisiana and I met up for a sunrise ride along the beach and got an unexpected adrenaline rush on our way back into L.A.
Child, why did I say let’s just take the street roads and figure it out as we go?! Next thing I know, I was behind Marcus approaching a freaking highway tunnel outside of LAX!
My Lord.
Forgive my language, but I shouted ahead, “WHAT THA F#(%?!”
Because IKYFLTM! There’s no way I’m headed into a motor vehicle, highway tunnel on my little bicycle outside of Los Angeles International Airport.
Child, I was. And there was no turning back.
I did my best not to complain or criticize my friend’s navigation.
I locked in and focused. Pedal. Pedal. Pedal b!+(#, pedal!
Don’t let your narrow tire, that can’t take a hit, hit anything on this highway pavement. Look down, make sure, or you’re going down. But look up, you need to see what’s ahead. You definitely can’t run into the back of Marcus, or else you’re both smash cake. And you don’t want to get left too far behind because it’s more likely motorists will see two cyclists than one lone cyclist.
You’re doing great, sweetie. Wait, you can’t really see. You should be able to see, you have vision that’s better than 20/20. Oh, you still have your jet black shades on to keep the Los Angeles sunlight from blinding you, but baby, ain’t no sunlight nowhere in this here tunnel. Take the shades off. Hold them in your hand, no time to fiddle with your fanny pack or ever trying to tuck them into the neck of your drifit shirt.
Whew, okay! Now you’re seeing better. This isn’t so bad at all, and you’ve made it so far. No one has blown their horn at you, nor sworn out of their window at you. No one has swerved near you, making you think you’ll be the butterscotch ice cream in the middle of an ice cream cookie sandwich, with the cement wall as one cookie and a 6,000-pound Escalade as the other cookie.
Say like Benny The Butcher, thank God I made it.
When we made it out of the darkness of the tunnel, back in cloud-covered daylight, I said, “that wasn’t too bad.”
“Actually… that was great!”
Am I a lunatic for… dare I say, having liked it a little bit?
Okay, I didn’t like it like it, but I almost kinda liked it, if that makes sense.
To anyone reading this that may care about me and find the thought of me doing that type of activity anxiety-inducing, don’t worry, I’m not going to look for highway tunnels aroundLA to ride my bicycle thru.. I just figured I’d tell y’all about that one.
If you’re having the slightest thoughts about having yourself some bicycle adventures, please do! You see I’m alive to tell the story! Seriously, don’t try this at home, kids! Come back for more of my bike life adventures if you want to be stressed out.
Share this post with a friend, and tell them you want to do something adventurous with them!
Get out there! If it’s going to be a bike ride, please stay in bike lanes, and/or on quiet neighborhood streets when you go out; and tag me in your (safely taken) pictures on Twitter or Instagram when you do! I wanna see!
Thank you for being here, riders ♥
