WHen we got up this morning, and discussed a ride, DH asked where we should ride. I said I wanted to try yesterday's again. I suggested taking the long way to the main road instead of going right into the wee hills, and that made a huge difference. When we got to yesterday's turn around, we went on, UP instead of coming back, with a couple of stops for air in our lungs, (in case anyone's wondering about the exercise asthma -- no, I recover pretty quickly when I quit abusing myself!). DH said, at the second rest stop that we should go to where the dirt road comes onto this one, at the top and rest, but amazingly, as soon as I got to the top, I was like TOTALLY fresh and ready to keep going! Cheering for myself as I rounded the curve where that stop should have been, and cruising on down the road, I was amazed at how good I felt! The hill put us in position to continue on a GREAT loop that combined yesterday's ride and one we did a couple of weeks ago (about 27 miles all together!) Some GREAT downhill runs, but DH said I wasn't to go over 20mph on them (the meanie!). The first one, we had another up at the bottom, and yes, I cheated -- got up to 24.5 before we started back up and I went back down to about five... The second one, we had to turn off onto another road partway down, so indeed I kept the speed in check. I whined profusely about keeping my speed down, because HE gets to go fast, and he said "it would be worse if you fell and got hurt..."

So, yeah, I decided not to scare him too badly after all!

At the top of one hill, we saw a sign: Wild Horse Corrals ->

Thought about following the arrow, to see if we could see any wild horses stuck inside the fences, but there was another sign on the road too, that gave us pause....

Hills were ALL much better today -- thanks for everyone's advice!

And, oh, yeah, I visited with my neighbor about her new bike this afternoon -- she's so excited! Says it made a HUGE difference changing over from the hybrid she'd been riding! Came back inside, DH said I must quit chatting with Nadine about the bikes! (his mantra: you WILL learn to like mountain biking....)

Karen in Boise, who doesn't much like shifty sand and ruts and holes in her road!