Today was the monthly CTO Breakfast in Provo. Due to a scheduling conflict I wasn’t able to attend last month so I was looking forward to this morning’s event and I definitely was not disappointed. We had quite a discussion on Google’s Android phone, Twitter’s architecture, startups, funding, technology in schools, and much more. These are always quite invigorating sessions for me.

That meant I needed to be in Provo at 8 a.m. this morning. So, I left yesterday afternoon and went to our daughter Heather’s place in North Salt Lake and then went the rest of the way to Provo this morning. I decided to ride my motorcycle down which turned out to be a lot of fun. I managed to dodge all the thunderstorms on the way down yesterday, including waiting an hour in a McDonald’s Restaurant in Pleasant View, Utah for a storm to pass. I did get caught in one this afternoon on the way back, and spent a bit over a half hour under a bridge.

Motorcycles are allowed to travel in the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes in the Salt Lake area. That’s actually a good thing because the regular traffic lanes are dangerous! The HOV lane going into Salt Lake City doesn’t start on southbound I-15 until I am almost to the city center. I left Heather’s at 7 a.m. and the traffic was very heavy … and very fast. The posted speed limit is 65 mph. I pulled on going 70 and was getting honked at and a couple of drivers demonstrated their middle-finger IQ as they went around me. The honking pretty much went away at 75, but the traffic generally was moving ten to twenty miles an hour faster than that.

Eventually the HOV lane started and I moved into that lane. There is almost no traffic in the HOV lanes and what traffic there is moves between 65 and 70. I set the cruise control on 70 (that’s right … my bike has cruise control) and only got passed by one car coming behind me in the HOV lanes. Maybe there’s something about two or more people in the car that causes people to slow down?

Because the traffic is moving so fast, if anything goes wrong around me (that is, some other driver does something stupid), I’m dead. That isn’t my idea of a good day, so I try to keep some clear space around me. Rush Hour traffic, however, abhors empty space and it immediately fills up. The lack of traffic in the HOV lanes allows me to ride at a more reasonable speed and keep some clear space around me. I like HOV lanes specifically for that reason.

Whenever possible I don’t ride on the freeway when there’s traffic. Going down last evening I got off the freeway at the Pleasant View / North Ogden exit and went the rest of the way through town on US-89. That was a very pleasant ride. Coming back today I took US-89 through Logan, then up through Preston, Swan Valley, and back on I-15 south of McCammon. Again a very pleasant ride. My rear end was complaining about the amount of time in the motorcycle seat, though, by the time I got home this afternoon. It was a pleasant trip and a great meeting. Tomorrow will be much less interesting. I’ve got to fix the lawnmower (drive belt came off), mow the back yard, do some garden construction, and then go with Nina to a ward member’s home to rototill their gardens. The evening will be capped off by a wedding reception. Time for bed!