Monday, May 5, 2008

Just Like Riding a Bicycle

Saturday morning was a little bit nasty. I was doing inside the house stuff (those troublesome curtain rods). About 11:00 friends Dan and Brian showed up, looking like drowned rats in yellow raincoats and soggy black booties. I think they were happy to get off their bikes and come in for a cup of hot coffee. It has been a while since the three of us have talked and it was fun, full of enthusiasm for riding together again. Not sure how it happend but before they left we made a pact to ride the upcoming ORRANDO 200K on May 24th (how DID that happen?) This means I'll need to get my bike in running order, find my stored away gear and start riding! I don't want to fail to complete a 200K for lack of making the time cutoffs.


So, .... Sunny, warm Sunday, wife's away on biz, lets see here what to do? Hang those pesky curtain rods, re-wire the yard lights, rake rocks from the 'excavated' part of the yard, or ... go for a bike ride .... Hmmmm?


Well first a little glam shot of the house in the sun just to prove that it's not always cloudy, doomy, gloomy down at Rocky acres. (Guess where I'm going after this photo shoot?)





It is hard to beat the view of the world rolling by from the seat of a bicycle:


playful goats,



Suspicious calves


And sleepy colts
all look a little better when you are on your bike.

I headed for Elma on the Southbank road, into the teeth of the wind coming off the ocean through the Chehalis gap. I expected this, but I didn't think it would make riding so hard. I mean HARD! I felt like I was riding through sand! I felt like I was riding uphill the whole way, I felt like I was towing my lucky cinder block! I felt like I wasn't even coasting on the down hills very well. Wait a minute! I pulled over in a patch of shade, drank some water and gave the wheels a spin, just because. Sure enough, the rear wouldn't even roll free for half a revolution, the wheel was way out of true. I opened up the break and that helped a lot, but it was so bad the wheel was rubbing the fender and stays too. I limped back home confident in the notion that I would see enormous performance gains in my very next ride.

Well some things just look how they look on a bike.

2 comments:

  1. Yahoo - PJ back on the bike! Can't wait to see you out there Paul, we've missed you. Amy

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  2. Hi Paul - Good to see you have time to resume some riding. Hope to intersect a ride soon. -Paul

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