Well it was wonderfully sunny today. A good 20 degrees warmer than average for May, barely 50 degrees when we started our ride today and never getting much into the 60s. But it was windy! The forecast I checked when I woke up said 10-15 mph but it seemed much worse than that, strong enough to feel in the car when I drove to the ride start.

Several years ago I learned the hard way, don't go for a bike ride on a windy spring day. It's like being sandblasted by pollen, and my eyes just can't take it. But with the promise of a sunny day after so much rain and gray skies, and a ride planned to go to a strawberry festival, I forgot that lesson until it was too late. Only a mile into the ride my eyes were already in agony. When we reached the first rest stop (18 miles in) I went into the restroom and tried to wash the pollen away from my eyes with a wet paper towel. But the wind had dried out my contact lenses so badly, even though my eyes were closed I managed to move the lens in my right up and away from where it needed to be. I tried putting eye drops in but the lens refused to move back where it belonged. So I had to take it out and put it back in my eye. After that I could see clearly but it still didn't feel right, and I knew that if I tried to do the full 58 miles that we'd planned to ride I faced a serious risk of the lens drying out again and coming out of my eye. So I changed my plan and rode back to the start by myself via the shortest route. Instead of 58 miles my total for the day was 28. On the one hand I was disappointed, but on the other hand I felt so unmotivated when I rode just two days ago that I think having today be a short, relatively easy ride will help me enjoy the rides I hope to do over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile there was still that strawberry festival. When I got back to my car I put more drops in my eyes. They didn't feel great but weren't bad enough to be concerned about being able to drive. So I packed up my gear and drove to the church where the festival was taking place. I got there just before it officially opened, and not long afterwards my fellow cyclists began to arrive. We had four different groups from our club, representing different classes (speeds) with some doing the long ride and others doing shorter versions, so I had a chance to visit with people that I don't often ride with. I had fresh berries with whipped cream, a slice of pie that was full of berries and two small tarts. After all the cyclists left I saw two other club members who had arrived by car, and I had more fresh berries with whipped cream (and cake this time) with them. Then I bought a quart of berries to take home. Strawberries are really not my favorite thing, but today they were just so good -- if they were always this good I would eat them much more often.