riding into June and the beginning of summer

[north woods gal]

Thanks, all.

Has always been my personality to go whole hog when it's something I love and, of course, that has its downside, too. Yup, will give myself a bit of a rest.

[Sky King]

My riding the last 10 days has been pathetic. High 90's and into the triple digit heat always kills my riding - Ha. The DH is leaving tonight (well tomorrow actually as it will be 3am) to start his two week tour. I will meet him and our DD in Dillon, Mt on Tuesday and the 3 of us are riding the Pioneer Mountains scenic byway. We will take 3 days for that. Then it's off to Bozeman via car to celebrate some 60th birthdays. I have graciously volunteered (HA) to return to Boise to work while he continues on to Missoula for the Adventure Cycling 40th anniversary of Bike Centennial. Once again, I will get behind the wheel and drive to meet him. So I expect I will have record driving miles, not riding miles in July!

[ny biker]

Catching up... I had record driving miles in the last half of June. From northern VA up to NY, overnight at my parents' house, then through CT and RI to the vacation house in Plymouth MA. Nine days of back and forth between Plymouth and various towns on Cape Cod, with some detours south to Wareham and finally up to the historic section of Plymouth on our way back to NY. Spent a couple of nights there, then returned to NoVa by way of JFK airport to pick up a friend and take her to her home in central NJ. After 9 years and 113,000 miles I remain pleased with my Prius.

As for cycling... there was no room in the car for my bike and not enough time to get in all the sightseeing we wanted to do, so never a thought to renting a bike while I was there. We did see a few cyclists battling headwinds on the paths on either side of the Cape Code canal from our tour boat. Also we saw a handful of cyclists on the roads riding flat-bar bikes, way more when we visited Martha's Vineyard for an afternoon, and I saw one lone roadie in the neighborhood where we stayed. I did think that was a good area for cycling, with low speed limits and roads winding around small ponds. But not many others seemed to agree. On the other hand I was not impressed with the conditions I saw on Martha's Vineyard, with buses passing wobbly tourists on bikes with little room to spare.

Now that I'm back home, I went out for a ride after work two days ago, my first since June 11. I didn't leave the office until after 7, started riding around 8 and finished around 10. I'm glad the sun is setting late these days because I do prefer to ride when it's still light out, even if darkness falls before I finish. I did a version of my usual ride with fewer of the steep hills because my legs felt like spaghetti. Otherwise it was uneventful. The weather was near perfect, in the 70s with low humidity.

For most of the ride I was listening to a baseball game on my phone. My nephew is studying broadcast journalism and is spending his summer calling games for a college league. I had my phone in my pocket with the volume turned up rather than using earbuds. I wouldn't do that while riding with others because it would no doubt be annoying, but since I was alone it was a nice diversion, one that I hope to enjoy for the rest of the summer on my post-work rides.