December rides...

[north woods gal]

Yup, crazy old lady me is still riding her fatties out on the snow packed roads, a bit. That probably says more about how much I dislike riding, indoors, on the trainer than anything, though. Another 5" plus of snow, last night, so the snow is way more than the fatties can handle on the trails. It's all skiing, now, on the trails. Sigh! I really miss my trail riding, even to the point where I fantasize about stealing hubby's snow blower to clear trails. Of course, if I broke it, I'd be in the doghouse, big time.

[rebeccaC]

For the last weekend we are going to be home until January we spent Friday and yesterday night in Los Olivos to ride the quiet country roads in the Santa Ynez valley yesterday. Had a small storm/cold system come through southern ca. the end of the week but we had a beautiful sunny low 60’s day of relaxing and riding in this wonderful valley of lightly traveled side roads with no hard climbing…..even though it took some mental strength for me not to want to ride Mt. Figueroa.

It felt good after the last few weekends of climbing feasts to just be in the quiet moments of feeling blessed to be with Alex on the roads I’ve come to know and enjoy so well over the last few years……and taking time to relax together before our holiday trip….and of course having a wonderful hotel with the best spa and masseuses outside of L.A., excellent healthy food and friendly, engaging people. We rode from a little after 8am to 4pm, some highlights were visiting the Mission Santa Ines, visiting some wineries, watching baby goats doing their crazy dances in a field and having the best squash soup and a nutritious salad for lunch. Didn’t keep track of mileage as this wasn’t about any of that this weekend.

Hoping all here have a holiday season of feeling togetherness and caring…………….

[north woods gal]

That's my kind of list, Rebecca. Wonderful.

Our best to everyone, too, from up here in the frozen north country.

[azfiddle]

I got on the bike to ride to work today. It was close to 50 degrees but I still wore my new jacket (too warm, really, for this tempereature) and happily cruised passed a pair of Great Horned Owls just as the sky was getting light, with plenty of time to get to work and change clothes before the 7:30 am meeting. I turned the corner on the path, not even 4 miles in, and BANG! My tire blew out. I am not blaming my husband for pumping up my tires (even though this is the second time this has happened in a month), especially since he generously got in to the car and picked me up and took me to work. (And brought me an extra tire and tube just to be sure). I'm hoping the ride home will be less eventful.

[north woods gal]

Flats are always a bummer.

Did a little road work with one of the fat bikes around the neighborhood, just to be out riding. All snow packed roads, but, even so, not much of a challenge for the fat bike. Hit the freezing point, today and maybe some fresh snow, tomorrow, so the skiing is good, at least.

AZ, had a Northern Shrike eyeball our feeders, yesterday. Cool bird.

[azfiddle]

North woods gal- that would be a life bird for me. They don't really make it down to southern Arizona.

[north woods gal]

If I see it, again, I'll tell it to give Arizona a try. We don't have anywhere near the species diversity, up here, deep in the north woods, but I have picked up some life birds, too, by moving up here. Kind of like my biking. Everywhere I have lived, biking has been my favorite way to get to know the country and in the process, have added new birds to my life list.