The Garmin doesn’t lie. 38.8 degrees and wet up on Skyline, yet a really nice ride. Starting the day out, doing something you love, with friends… 38 degrees doesn’t matter.
Some things don’t add up. Normally, if I went to bed and it was raining, hard, I’d be looking forward to the next morning’s outing in the muck. But, after Sunday’s debacle on Skyline (being turned around, not too far from home, by a downed powerline and having to backtrack a very long way, in light rain), I was looking forward to riding my nice bike. The same bike I’d just spent two hours cleaning up after Sunday’s unexpectedly-soggy ride.
That rain wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did, and the lack of wind overnight meant the roads were still soaked in the morning. So, out comes the rain bike, again. I’d really been hoping it was time to put it away for a while! But with wet roads it would have been trashed again, and it’s a pretty severe social sin to show up on a group ride, on wet roads, without fenders.
The group remained one short of the norm, as younger Kevin is still dealing with his kidney issues (the stent installed last Friday is causing pretty severe pain), but the old pilot Kevin showed up, along with Eric and Joe. Haven’t seen Joe much since he moved out to Colorado, but he still “commutes” to work in San Bruno for a few days every month or so.
Nobody was riding fast, which suited me just fine. It wasn’t until I was up on Skyline that I started feeling OK. Very pretty up on top, with the sun shining through the trees, casting rays through the light fog. I’d have some decent photos if my battery in the video camera hadn’t run down sooner than expected, and/or if it were easier to take one-handed photos with an iPhone 6 (the smaller iPhone5 was much easier for this task!). Still, I had some video, and Strava, to prove I was out there.
Definitely looking forward to a long spell of dry weather. It’s time. Not just for riding; the bike shop took a pretty big hit in January and late February-early March. After 4+ years of drought, we were expecting quite a few more customers than we had. When I look back to our last “normal” year (a winter with rain), the numbers this year don’t look out of the ordinary. But it sure hasn’t felt that way! I’m ready to exchange a deluge of rain for a deluge of customers. 🙂
