and now for "mom's" side!
What a great time we always have riding our bikes (boy, hate to call "Slick" that...just "bike"...it's so much more then just a "bike").
Ride #1 was out Hurron River Drive. A gorgous ride that was 12? miles out along a winding river (oh, hey, that's why they call it "Hurron River" drive!) with just the right amount of hills. Enough to get your heart rate going, but also not too many to make your knees scream at you. Perfect weather, perfect day. Perfect ride.
Then...Ride #2...I'd like to call the first 22 miles of this ride, the "Ride from Hell". Katherine so cheerfully prepared me for the ride by refering to the first part as "oh, just some rolling hills mom". Rolling hills that only went UP...and the wind?...gail force! The kind that blows your bike from under you. Makes you want to stay in the drops just to avoid being too big of a target to get blown over into speeding traffic whipping by at 50mph (yeah, the speed limit was 40 but who reads?!). Then the doggie incedent. We're cruzing along, finally on a flat stretch (by stretch i mean about 50 feet) and "POOF" a boxer going about 55mph is flying down the road chasing after Katherine! Wow, could that dog move!!!!! Like Katherine said, it was hard to decide which to be more concerned about, her ankles being chewed off or the dog being hit by a car! All that flashed through my head was the mountain lion attacks in Caulifornia and how you're supposed to hold your bike over your head and look "BIG". Oh, sure! This dog didn't care how "big" anything was, it was out for the sport of nipping at rotating feet!, throwing itself in front of spinning bike wheels and by pure luck, dodging speeding cars! Nut case dog!!!
That was the first 22 miles...and a break in a great little town for an energy boost and then back on the road for the second 22... which was awesome! A bike trip from heaven. Wind at our backs, winding roads with gentle hills, 60 degrees and sunny...and no more nut case dogs! Very few cars and lots of other bikers!
All in all,....a very nice ride. (kind of like having a baby...you forget the pain over time!).
Thanks for the great weekend Katherine! And the Awesome rides!
Mom/gretchen