There’s a smell in here that will outlast religion.

With the kiddo’s boyfriend in town for the week and the shortened holiday work week getting out on the bike has been a challenge. On a typical week, I’m up and getting ready before anyone else in the house. With a guest around I don’t have the same freedom of movement. Thankfully, he was only visiting and holiday weekends pass.

I’d been exchanging text messages with Joy on and off for most of the day on Saturday trying to come up with ride plans. When she couldn’t come up with anything solid I threw out the option of doing the Pedal & Pour Sunday ride with a sprinkling of extra credit. She agreed and I decided to invite Moose along for the ride.

The ride over to Pedal & Pour was standard fare and went without issue. We met up with Moose at the corner of LVB and St. Rose. He fell back during some of the climbs and took a slightly different route through Mountains Edge, but we all ended up at Pedal & Pour before the start of the ride.

I’m not entirely sure how, but I became a de facto ride leader by the time we cleared Sunset on Hualapai. All I was doing was riding my own ride at my own pace and next thing I know I have a train behind me. No big deal really I just continued doing my own thing and if a bunch of others want to hang then more power to them. At one point, I think it was just before the turn onto Alta, that Joy mentioned we’d gapped a good chunk of the group so I decided to dial it back some to allow everyone to catch up. By the time we arrived at Charleston, we were all stitched back together and made the final push back to Pedal & Pour.

After a coffee and oatmeal cookie break, Moose, Joy and I set off for home. I wanted to log some Wandrer miles so we took a different route home than usual. Joy and I lost Moose when we made a right onto Ford as he was going to head on home.

Our route took us through Southern Highlands along the Duck Creek Trail in Goett Family Park. We took things nice and chill as there were several people out enjoying the gorgeous afternoon weather. The highlight of the ride was when we came upon a little man riding along that trail. He was cruising just in front of his parents and ringing away on his bell. As we approached, I started ringing mine in response. He looked up at me and I swear his jaw nearly hit the floor and his eyes went as big as saucers. It was so cute to see such a look of awe. It put me into such a good mood for the rest of the ride.

After our Wandrer miles north of Cactus, we started south for a run out to Jean and back. The cruise down to Jean felt really fast and once we arrived at Jean and spotted the big flag flying over Terrible’s the reason was clear. We’d been enjoying a decent tailwind for most of the trip down. Needless to say the headwind on the way back wasn’t the greatest, but I just bit the bullet and ground it out until we made it to the Starbucks near the Bicentennial dog bone. The two of us hung out for 40 minutes or so before we decided it was time to head on home. We said our goodbyes at Via Firenze, and I cruised home to wrap the day.

Overall it was a great day to ride. Weather was great considering it’s the first of December. Both the leg and arm warmers were off when I got home. Had some good conversation at Pedal & Pour with some new folks, and finished with a nice coffee at Starbucks with Joy which hasn’t happened in a bit. Looking forward to things returning to normal with the kiddo’s boyfriend having flown home Saturday evening. Nothing but chill commutes this week as the Dead of Winter Double Double is this weekend and I intend to ride both days.

New bike fund: $76.26 (+$0.01)
10.14 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
417 vehicles @ 3.7 per mile, 1.1 per minute, Speeds: 39.6 mph (avg), 63.7 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic.com
Give your activities the names they deserve. — by Bandok.com
Cloudy-Sunny, 45°F-64°F, Feels like 47°F-69°F, Humidity 25%-13%, Wind W 2mph-N 3mph — by Klimat.app
— myWindsock.com Report —
Weather Impact™: 3.4%
Headwind: 53% @ 2.1 – 10.5 mph
Longest Headwind: 52m 25s
Air Speed: 18.5 mph
Temp: 40.9-62.8 °F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
— END –‍