Christians believe that Sunday is a day of rest. Talk to any photographer and they will tell you that the best time to take a picture is when the sky is overcast. Today, I ignored both of those rules. I grabbed my camera and my road bike and did what probably millions of cyclists in the Southeast did today....I went on a bike ride. I couldn't resist with the 60 degree weather and clear skies. A mountain bike ride would've been my ride of choice, but with a newly diagnosed sciatic nerve, mountain biking is out for about another week. I'm not complaining though, just being on a ride, outside nonetheless, not on a trainer is plenty enough for me.
I had plans on 30+ miles, but decided I would just ride a route and whatever the distance turned out to be, that's what it would be. I had no climbing planned, no particular route in mind and very little care for where I went or how I would perform on the bike. Dammit I just wanted to ride.
I've learned, over the few years of road riding, that you should never underestimate the possibility of chaos and randomness when you venture 20 miles away from home on a backroad. I was riding at a pretty good clip, 20 mph or so down a slight downhill. The majority of my ride slices through farming country, so there are cow pastures on either side of me for miles and miles and miles and miles. On this particular section of slight downhill, I had noticed out of the corner of my eye that there was a calf, probably 2 months old, trotting along side of me. Didn't think much about it until he crossed the ditch and ran right out in front of me in the middle of the road. I immediately clinched my butt cheeks so as not to actually crap on myself and then let out a loud stream of cuss words that probably didn't really go together. This cow was outside of the fence and I'm chasing him down a backroad. He must have realized that he was running out of steam, so he darted off the the right, jumped the ditch and practically dove through the barbwire fence back into the pasture. I was impressed by his agility.
The rest of the ride was less eventful, extremely peaceful and fulfilling. I snapped some pictures of my ride to share with you. None of the cow running down the road though, I couldn't get to my camera in time.
I would like to take the opportunity to review a new purchase I made yesterday. I bought one of those water bottles - Insulated Polar Bottle - you can see it in the bottle cage of my roadie. It's supposed to keep your beverage cold regardless of the outside temperature and I have to say, it worked well. I had seen lots of folks riding with them in the Summer and always thought about trying one. I definitely recommend them.
^^ The one-lane backroad. What most of today's ride looks like ^^
^^View at the midway point of my ride^^
IT WAS A GREAT DAY TO RIDE. THE FIRST PIC IS DOWN ALONG THE RIVER, IS THE SECOND ON RT 91 ?