Life's Highlights

Took off early this morning for a ride east of town. Many of the roads have been tarred and chipped, so the ride was bumpy to say the least. I turned south for just a short ways, hoping to find better roads, but the County has been very diligent about the road work this summer, much to the dismay of cyclists who have to deal with the gravel they use as part of the road surfacing process. Since this is one of those matters beyond my control, all I can do is suck it up and ride. So I rode, getting in a 58.5 mile ride.

Chicory
The route south did take me to some countryside I've never ridden before. There I found hills. Nothing terribly steep or long, just nice little ups and downs to enjoy. I finally found myself meeting up with a high traffic road that doesn't get the tar and chip treatment, and when I took it for about a half mile, I was in heaven. The smoothness was bliss. Interestingly enough, my speed went up quite a bit on this road. It's amazing how those bumpy, pebbly-stones covered roads bring the speed down dramatically. Unfortunately, I didn't stay on this beautifully smooth road very long as I don't like cycling with semis barreling down on me.

Fields of gold
The road I turned onto was another bumpy, tar and chip disaster, but here I was treated to a very cool scene of three huge hawks circling then alighting on power line poles. The screeching was awesome. I tried to video one of the hawks, but apparently I had stopped the video when I thought I had started it. The video clip I did manage to get is blurry and short, so that didn't work out. Watching the hawks and listening to them, though, was truly the highlight of the ride.

Heading towards home I had the wind at my back, so the last 20 miles went by quickly. When I pulled into the driveway, Hubby was already in the pool, cleaning it so I could jump in and cool off. Sitting in the cool water after a 3 hour 30 minute bike ride was highlight number 2. After the pool cool-down, showering, and eating lunch, I settled on the couch to watch the Tour de France Stage 8, tivoed this morning while I was out. Highlight number 3. Life is good.

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