A good weekend all around.....

I worked a little late Friday then picked up pizza for supper and headed home for a relaxing evening of doing absolutely nothing!

Saturday morning I started off the day with 30 minutes on the bike on the trainer and then some housework and laundry. After lunch I got in a little scrap booking and a short 5 mile bike ride around town. It was a little chilly for a longer ride for me. Charlie and I went out for an early supper at Mona Lisa's. We hadn't been there for awhile and I don't know why because it is so good! I had the balsamic steak linguini with gorgonzola cheese - the same thing I always have but I hate to try anything different as this is so good. We then went to a benefit concert put on by the 1st and 2nd year med students. The musical talent was very impressive! And the pair of MC's did great stand up comedy between the musical numbers.

When we got home we had a surprise - the "grand-dog" was here for a visit. Daughter and son-in-law were in town at some friends and they (and Maggie) spent the night with us.

Sunday morning we had a nice visit with the daughter and son-in-law. I took off for a bike ride in the afternoon while Charlie did some more detailing on his Torino and then he came to Yankton and ran a couple of errands and picked me up at the lake. I got in a 32 mile ride - and not many miles against the wind so it was most enjoyable! We then went for a walk behind the old hospital, monastery, along the bluff. Charlie had never seen the monastery cemetery back there and the path with the stations of the cross. We enjoyed the view of the river and the leisurely walk.

When I was riding my bike along this path earlier in the afternoon - just as I entered the courtyard behind the chapel and monastery the bells started ringing. It seemed just like a scene out of the Sound of Music!

March Milestones

I have ridden my bike more this March than I ever have before. Beautiful weather, earlier switch to daylights savings time, and a new bike = more riding. I know this weather won't last forever so I've tried to take advantage of it! I'm finding new ways to sneak in short rides. For example, I store the Bike Friday in the trunk of my car, along with my cycling clothes and gear, and I'm ready to go for a quick ride over my lunch!

March stats so far:

• 10 bike rides
• 9 of these in the past week (3/14-3/21)
• got a ride to work on Friday, rode the bike home (24 mile commute) with a nice south wind to my back for majority of the ride
• 155 miles total so far for the month
• Lots of vitamin D

Priceless!

I'm sorry to my spin class instructors.....

but I will skip class to ride outside any chance I have. I will be back in class, this weather won't last forever, but while the weather is nice, I must ride outside. With 7 rides outside the past 6 days, I've come to realize how burned out I am on spin class. No fault of our great instructors (Cactus Eyed Joe and Biking Brady) it's just that I've been doing this routine for almost 5 years and it is the room and the bikes that torture me. I hope we get our new wellness center at USD, along with new equipment - it is most needed!

I broke the news today ....

To my LBS owner that is.......yes, with encouragement and support from Ride Vermillion I broke the news to my LBS owner that I purchased my first bike that didn't come from his shop. He took the news well but stared down the little power raspberry for a full minute without saying a word, but then went to work adjusting my front brake for me. Glad that is behind me!

Then it was off for a ride with the Bike Friday tucked in the pace line behind Ride Vermillion and Biking Brady who very kindly slowed the ride way down in order for me to keep up. I set them loose at Burbank and enjoyed the return trip to Vermillion with a tail wind. Was that wind really only 9 mph? It sure felt a bit stronger than that!

St. Patty's Day Ride - Yankton

Saturday - March 14th - A beautiful day for a bike ride! Temp was in the low 50's but it felt cooler with the SSW 18 mph wind (with gusts up to 30 mph!). The route went from Yankton to Lewis and Clark Lake, across the damn, and then a short run on the Nebraska side of the river, across the Discovery Bridge and back to Yankton for a total of about 15 miles. The ride concluded with meeting up at Ben's for beverages and drawings for door prizes.

I rode the Bike Friday and the little power raspberry had some zip! It was a perfect bike for this ride - the Marathon Schwalbe's were good on the bike trial and the sand & gravel on the roads.

I tried putting some pictures into a video - hopefully this will work. I stopped to take pictures of all the geese on the lake, looked like a zillion of them - you can't see them very well, they're off in the distance in a spot of open water on the lake, but they are the talk of the town in Yankton. Here is a link to some photos from the Press & Dakotan site: http://spotted.yankton.net/galleries/index.php?id=348303

Bike Friday Ride

After a short ride around town and an adjustment to my saddle height, I hit the open road for a 16 mile ride. It was sweet....the bike feels like it was made for me. Wait a minute, it was made for me! It's a very comfortable ride. It's a touring style bike so it's heavier and not a bike I'll use to try to keep up with the speedy Gonzales Lane Hogs - you know who I mean! But racing is not the purpose of this bike and so far I'm very impressed by my little bike and anxious to take it out again. I'm hoping to show it off on the St. Patrick's Day ride in Yankton on the 14th - hopefully we won't need studded tires for that ride the way the forecast sounds for next week!

Bike Friday Test Ride

It warmed up to a balmy 9 degrees and the roads started to clear enough in patches to take the new Bike Friday out for a test ride - a short test ride - as all my biking buddies know I'm a "timmy" when it comes to biking in cold weather!

Even though it was a short ride I am very impressed with my new bike. Amazingly with only 26" wheels it doesn't seem that different of a ride. With only one more week until daylights savings time, I'm hoping to start riding the Bike Friday on a regular basis soon.

I'm also very impressed with the fold and unfolding of the bike. Just two quick releases and we had it folded in less than 2 minutes and the same for unfolding. Charlie and I were a little nervous about the folded bike fitting in the trunk of the Mustang as the trunk opening is quite narrow but the bike folds quite compactly and it went in with room to spare. That called for a little happy dance in the garage. I'm quite sure we will not even have to fold the bike to get it in the trunk of the Torino!

It was a good day....coffee with friends after church, brunch in Yankton where we saw Melissa and Nick. Charlie wanted to drive across the new Discovery Bridge so that was at good excuse to stop and get some Fat Tire beer while we were across the border in Nebraska. Then home and a very short bike ride. Life is good.