Tater, your bike and jersey are safe: they are probably both a bit small for me! BUT I do need one of those Amici Veloce shirts, cuz they're even prettier in person than in pictures! And I do need a similar bike: those Dolce's are sweet! (and besides, she said she loses 13 pounds when she goes from her mountain bike to her road bike -- which had me asking DH, wanna lose 13 pounds real fast?)

I also need a hill slug jersey -- as I was telling Earl this afternoon, no more hills until that front derailleur is fixed! It's not fun to know you have all those bottom gears and not be able to get to them when the hill lasts a few feet too long!

Earl has a few scratches, none serious and wishes he'd put his gloves on his hands instead of on top of the car this morning, after his fall. In the car on the way home, he said, one foot was in, just fine, and then all of a sudden, I was overbalanced toward that side...

Sounds just like everyone else I've heard/read about!

(his comment later? good thing I had my helmet on!)


We did indeed have a nice breeze clearing the haze out of the valley this morning -- It's good to see blue sky and puffy white clouds today!

Deep Canyon -- it's a scary name for the ride, but as Jen says, the hills weren't so bad after all on Deep Canyon road! The breeze made some challenging false-flats on the last third of the ride. I was just about sure that stretch was beating me, but I wasn't about to admit that to myself or anyone else, much less let it win, until Earl dropped back and asked me what speed I could maintain on the flats -- flats? I asked? Where are those? Maintain something? Yeah right. It wasn't much, but I was pretty sure we were creeping up hill a lot the last few miles, or going down. A while later, he dropped back and asked same question again. One of these days he'll learn...

I think having the speedometer on my bike sometimes psychs me out a bit: the last five miles was MUCH better (easier and I was happier) after I changed to the trip odometer screen, so that I was seeing how far we'd gone already. When I do that, sometimes I forget, and get excited to be riding 26mph, then I'd remember... Or was it the handful of raisins I pulled out of my bag of trail mix just before I changed screens? Who knows, who cares -- one or the other of them worked!

So, I got in the car, said to Earl, Great ride, huh? He looked at me, said, Huh? you didn't LOOK like you liked it. Thing is, they're ALL great -- even when I'm hating a stretch, accomplishing it is, well, dang, can't find the words! (and I've always got words for things, darn it!)

Great ride today Jen! I'm looking forward to another one -- does that bit about keeping an eye on your stuff next time mean you're planning to go on the River's Bend ride too? Some day, I'll actually keep up with you, girl!

Karen in Boise