Another not so great ride today. The weather was perfect, about 78 and partly cloudy, so we went out to test the cue sheet for the ride we are leading Friday morning. This is part of a series that is every week from April to October. It gradually increases miles, from 15 to about 35. Anyway, we drove to the start point, because tomorrow we are doing a 50 mile charity ride for the Lions club and we didn't want to do 40 today. OK, so the route was planned with our GPS, mapping software, which I have no clue how to use, but Steve does. Everytime he uses it, it seems like a pain. I am familiar with the roads near the starting point, but I really don't know the names. Several have no street signs, which is typical for around here. The ride was supposed to be 20 miles and it goes from Weston (the start point) to near where I live in Concord, and back in a loop to Weston. So the second half of the ride was easy to plan. Right away we noticed some mistakes, things we needed to add in. Then we made a wrong turn and then another. So we had like 8 or 9 miles of back tracking. Steve has no sense of direction and depends on the GPS to get anywhere, I mean, he is really challenged. When I finally got us to the point where we were supposed to turn toward Concord I said let's go back. We had already gone 12 miles and I knew if we did the rest of the route, it would be more than I wanted to do. My legs hurt and it felt hot enough that i should have been wearing a sleeveless jersey. So we headed back on a main road.
Most of this ride that we did is in Lincoln, a town that has the worst roads around. Tons of bumps and pot holes. Every time there was a downhill I would have to slow because there were some serious holes. And, the drivers in Weston and Lincoln seem to be angry at cyclists. What a difference from around where I live, which is only about 10 miles away! Tons of cars got right up behind us, passed and gunned their engines to show us their displeasure. There were also many "recreational" cyclists, which there is nothing wrong with, but many without helmets and not crossing intersections properly. We saw one family with a tandem and kids on singles riding the wrong way on th road. . .

Oh well. The cue sheet is now fixed and I did get 17.6 miles in. I hope tomorrow's 50 miles are better because some of the ride is on the same roads.