After riding a desk since the last weekend in September, I rode with a group yesterday.

Easy pace, moderately hilly course, moderate wind and temps in the mid-sixties. My group was great and let me catch up at turns and stop signs.

We are just now having some marginally chilly days and due to extreme drought and warm temps, our foliage is about as good as it's going to get this year.

We're not in the mountains, but we rode some hilly, curvey and narrow roads around a monadnock peak. I could easily imagine I was pedaling in Vermont in autumn. It was bliss.

Not bliss: riding 25 miles on a new bicycle after not having ridden in six weeks.

Love the Iwo Jima Memorial!