I had to take a vacation day today (I'm a government contractor and there's a delay in getting funding for our work due to a paperwork problem), so I got a few friends together for a 32-mile ride this morning. We're having our first heat wave of the year, yesterday the high temp of 97 broke a record and today was only a few degrees lower. I tried to plan a shady route, but ended up with lots of shade in the first half and some long sunny stretches in the second part of the ride. Luckily there were large white clouds in the sky that kept the sun from blazing down on us without mercy. Despite the heat, it was a nice ride overall.