2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Stefan Mikes]

50 December Warsaw Miles on Vado (-1 C, strong wind, sunny)

The most important message from my today's ride: I was warm. I had adequate clothes on me, and the heated socks worked all the way!

Riding towards Warsaw, in the "far" Aleje (Avenues). There are only two Avenues (plural) in Warsaw: Jerozolimskie and Ujazdowskie. If a Warsawer just says "Aleje", it is a reference to Jerozolimskie.

Warsaw West Station area. Still in the Aleje.

Artur Zawisza Square. The blue Atlas Tower is the place where I used to hold our company's professional (international) Workshops pre-covid.

The City is continuously developing. Here, a new skyscraper under construction. Still in Aleje.

Compared to a regular day, this (Covid) Holiday Sunday meant very little traffic in the City. Many of City employees usually come for the working days from distant areas and leave for the weekend. Now, many of them just work from their homes, leaving the city empty on the work-days, too.

The landmark of the City of Warsaw: The Palace of Culture and Science (formerly: Joseph Stalin's Palace) of 1955. Clad with marble, it originally was snowy-white. It is still the tallest building in Poland, and it is taller than any of similar Moscow "palaces".

The short story:
In 1930s, the Soviet architect Lev Rudnev was sent to NYC to learn the art of constructing skyscrapers from Americans. After his return, starting from 1939, Rudnev began designing "palaces". In 1952, he came to Poland to build the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science. He fell in love with our country and designed the most impressive building he ever had created. The Palace was completed in 1955, two years after the death of Stalin.

The Cedet building, formerly Smyk (The Kid) Department Store, formerly Central Children Department Store, originally Central Department Store in Aleje (1951, reconstructed in 2018). The building with the globe at the top hosted the ORBIS state-run travel agency that owned most of hotels in Poland by 1989. Far away: an artificial palm-tree at the Charles de Gaulle Roundabout.

In 1914, the construction of the Third Bridge, also named Czar Nicholas II Bridge was completed. It has been Prince Józef Poniatowski Bridge since 1918. Nowadays, Warsaw sports as many as eleven bridges. And we want more of them! Far: The National Stadium, (or the National Hospital today). People ironically call the stadium "The Wicker Basket".

At the River Vistula right bank. I was attending the Yacht Club of Poland for a season as a teenager. Tried to be a competing yachtsman but gave up. I was too much afraid of water at age of 13

The quarter of Gocław. I met my (now late) wife there back in 1982. The picture is taken from a very long bike path along the top of Wał Miedzeszyński (flood embankment).

Romantic Street leads to the Romantic (Clothes Optional) Beach There also is a small ferry there, operating during warm season. The residence of the Ambassador of Brazil at the right.

Nice bike-friendly infrastructure next to the new Southern Bridge. I and Makenzen rode it only on last Tuesday.

River Vistula is not frozen yet. The sandy beach is. Warsaw is one of very few large world cities sporting sandy beaches on their rivers. (The view from the Southern Bridge northwards).

I was so happy to wear adequate clothes on the ride! (At the Southern Bridge).

The Temple of Divine Providence in Wilanów quarter of Warsaw. People call it "Juice Reamer", not without a reason

On the return. The place called Count's Road ("Count" as in the aristocratic title). Just showing the ice

Ride map with POI descriptions. Ah. The southern Warsaw quarter called Ursynów is so large and complex I lost my way there...

Ride stats.

The Sunday ride has been the nicest of the rides I had this Winter! Using mostly 45% Sport mode; 60% Sport for the 15 last kilometres and 100% Turbo for the very last 5 km.

 

[Mulezen]

https://electricbikereview.com/forums/attachments/50-december-warsaw-miles-vado-s-9-of-17-jpg.75267/

I can read Polish

 

[Chargeride]

0

50 December Warsaw Miles on Vado (-1 C, strong wind, sunny)

The most important message from my today's ride: I was warm. I had adequate clothes on me, and the heated socks worked all the way!

View attachment 75259
Riding towards Warsaw, in the "far" Aleje (Avenues). There are only two Avenues (plural) in Warsaw: Jerozolimskie and Ujazdowskie. If a Warsawer just says "Aleje", it is a reference to Jerozolimskie.

View attachment 75260
Warsaw West Station area. Still in the Aleje.

View attachment 75261
Artur Zawisza Square. The blue Atlas Tower is the place I used to hold our company's professional (international) Workshops pre-covid.

View attachment 75262
The City is continuously growing. Here, a new skyscraper under construction. Still in Aleje.

View attachment 75263
Compared to a regular day, this (Covid) Holiday Sunday meant very little traffic in the City. Many of City employees usually come for the working days from distant areas and leave for weekend. Now, many of them just work from their homes, leaving the city empty on the work-days, too.

View attachment 75264
The landmark of the City of Warsaw: The Palace of Culture and Science (formerly: Joseph Stalin's Palace) of 1955. Clad with marble, it originally was snowy-white. It is still the tallest building in Poland, and it is taller than any of similar Moscow "palaces".

The short story:
In 1930s, the Soviet architect Lev Rudnev was sent to NYC to learn the art of constructing skyscrapers from Americans. After his return, starting from 1939, Rudnev began designing "palaces". In 1952, he came to Poland to build the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science. He fell in love with our country and designed the most impressive building he ever had created. The Palace was completed in 1955, two years after the death of Stalin.

View attachment 75265
The Cedet building, formerly Smyk (The Kid) Department Store, formerly Central Children Department Store, originally Central Department Store in Aleje (1951, reconstructed in 2018). The building with the globe at the top hosted the ORBIS state-run travel agency that owned most of hotels in Poland by 1989. Far away: an artificial palm-tree at the Charles de Gaulle Roundabout.

View attachment 75266
In 1914, the construction of the Third Bridge, also named Czar Nicholas II Bridge was completed. It has been Prince Józef Poniatowski Bridge since 1918. Nowadays, Warsaw sports as many as eleven bridges. And we want more of them! Far: The National Stadium, (or the National Hospital today). People ironically call the stadium "The Wicker Basket".

View attachment 75267
At the River Vistula right bank. I was attending the Yacht Club of Poland for a season as a teenager. Tried to be a competing yachtsman but gave up. I was too much afraid of water at age of 13

View attachment 75268
The quarter of Gocław. I met my (now late) wife there back in 1982. The picture is taken from a very long bike path along the top of Wał Miedzeszyński (flood embankment).

View attachment 75269
Romantic Street leads to the Romantic (Clothes Optional) Beach There also is a small ferry there, operating during warm season. The residence of the Ambassador of Brazil at the right.

View attachment 75270
Nice bike-friendly infrastructure next to the new Southern Bridge. I and Makenzen rode it only on last Tuesday.

View attachment 75271
River Vistula is not frozen yet. The sandy beach is. Warsaw is one of very few large world cities sporting sandy beaches on their rivers. (The view from the Southern Bridge northwards).

View attachment 75272
I was so happy to wear adequate clothes on the ride! (At the Southern Bridge).

View attachment 75273
The Temple of Divine Providence in Wilanów quarter of Warsaw. People call it "Juice Reamer", not without a reason

View attachment 75274
On the return. The place called Count's Road ("Count" as in the aristocratic title). Just showing the ice


View attachment 75277
Ride map with POI descriptions. Ah. The southern Warsaw quarter called Ursynów is so large and complex I lost my way there...

View attachment 75278
Ride stats.

The Sunday ride has been the nicest of the rides I had this Winter! Using mostly 45% Sport mode; 60% Sport for the 15 last kilometres and 100% Turbo for the very last 5 km.

Its so open, like a US city.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Its so open, like a US city.

Because it was razed down to the ground by the Nazi in 1944.

1955. The square in which the Palace was built hosted a large residential quarter before.

 

[Chargeride]

Oh yes, I should have considered that.

 

[ChezCheese:)]

I went to Warsaw in 1977. I was 19, doing the backpacking around Europe thing. I took the ferry to Swinoujscie from Malmö, Sweden, and the train to Szczecin. Wandered around Szczecin for a day or so, then caught a flight to Warsaw. It was the first time in my life that I couldn't make head or tail of anything anyone said or that was written. Maybe it said, "Ladies Room", maybe it said "Biohazard Do Not Enter". The taxi driver from the airport drove me to the university to a student residence, and suggested maybe I could rent an empty room there. Fortunately there was a guy there, named Jurek, whose Bulgarian girlfriend's roommate was out of town, so I could stay there.

It was summertime, and there was a heat wave going on. (I know, hard to believe, but true). Jurek wanted to know why I had come to Poland. I said, I wanted to visit Treblinka. He said, "I don't believe all that stuff about the Jews."

Because of the heat, I wanted to buy a T-shirt. Jurek took me to a department store. This was the communist era, and their department store system was strange to me. All the merchandise was behind counters. There were some shirts on display. You waited in a long line and when finally your turn came, you told the clerk what you wanted and they gave it to you. No asking to see other colors or sizes or types: boom - - this is the shirt you will buy.

I didn't get to Treblinka. I had been traveling for 3 months, and I was getting homesick. I went to the airport and was given a choice of a ticket to Munich or a ticket to Zurich. Neither of which had I planned to see, so I knew nothing about either of them. Munich, Zurich, Munich, Zurich... The ticket lady was getting impatient. I blurted out "Munich!" though I had been thinking Zurich. So I went to Munich, which turned out OK, because I made it to Dachau.

That is my experience of Poland. I imagine it is different now.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

How true, Chez! It was indeed a weird system, under which I had to spend my youth until the age of 28. I could see in person how the West Europe really looked like in 1974, during the times of relative welfare. I could go together with my parents to Italy to see our distant family there; it was the Land of Plenty for us.

In 1977, I was 16. It was the second year of the crisis that lasted by 1989. I'm not surprised you were shocked by seeing Poland of that era. I and friends heard about the newest thing -- punk-rock -- at that time and became punk-rockers, so much we were fed up with the system. I was a person to issue one of two first fanzines in Poland at that time (1979); mine was called SZMATA ("the rag", as the reference to Trybuna Ludu, the official Communist Party daily).

And yes, the summer of 1977 was indeed hot.

Me (wearing neck-tie) at the first Warsaw punk-rock gig ever, April 7th, 1979, age of 18.

I'm very surprised to hear about Jurek's view on Holocaust. It was only 32 years after the end of WWII that left Warsaw totally demolished, and it started with the Jewish quarter dubbed the Warsaw Ghetto. Not only Holocaust witnesses lived in big number between us but also all young Poles were made aware of it since the primary school.

Your story of "Munich, Zurich" reminds me a piece from the Polish comedy movie "Miś" (Teddy Bear):
-- I cannot send that telegram -- the lady at the post office says -- there's no such city like London. There's Lądek, Lądek-Zdrój...
-- London, a city in England...
-- Why didn't you tell me that before?! -- I'm telling this to you now... -- And I have to go and look for that city! Check where it is!

Note the clothing of the era (both actors play people from the ruling caste).

Poland has rapidly changed since 1989. Even more rapid change has occurred since Poland accession to the EU (2003). You wouldn't have recognised the country now. First difference: People can speak English now, especially the young ones. The second thing: perfect new roads including bike paths.

I forgot to mention the fact there were many cyclists, runners and people just walking in Warsaw on last Sunday, despite of the frost and wind. Poles love cycling! They are just too poor to own e-bikes en masse.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

One last ride before heading home …

Warrandyte State Park
East of Melbourne​

Yarra River
Warrandyte State Park​

Time's up: visiting the family for this year is over. Two lonely ebikes wait patiently in a shed far to the north.

For me, Melbourne's crammed city centre, its graffiti-ravaged inner suburbs and ever-expanding sprawl of outer suburbs held no appeal. Was this a glimpse of the future that awaits prosperous countries that do not heed the dreadful environmental and social effects of massive population growth… or even encourage it?

I know that I should have documented Melbourne's ugliness – it was impossible to miss – but my heart was not in the task and I chose to leave my camera behind when riding through the city. Inner Melbourne is not a place that I'd ever wish to revisit: it is an urban environment made unsightly by its inhabitants.

Beyond the city limits, in places like Warrandyte (above) where I spent just over a week with my brother and sister-in-law, this is a beautiful part of the world. Long may the pockets of near-wilderness remain.

 

[RabH]

One last ride before heading home …

View attachment 75255

Warrandyte State Park
East of Melbourne​

View attachment 75256

Yarra River
Warrandyte State Park​

Time's up: visiting the family for this year is over. Two lonely ebikes wait patiently in a shed far to the north.

For me, Melbourne's crammed city centre, its graffiti-ravaged inner suburbs and ever-expanding sprawl of outer suburbs held no appeal. Was this a glimpse of the future that awaits prosperous countries that do not heed the dreadful environmental and social effects of massive population growth… or even encourage it?

I know that I should have documented Melbourne's ugliness – it was impossible to miss – but my heart was not in the task and I chose to leave my camera behind when riding through the city. Inner Melbourne is not a place that I'd ever wish to revisit: it is an urban environment made unsightly by its inhabitants.

Beyond the city limits, in places like Warrandyte (above) where I spent just over a week with my brother and sister-in-law, this is a beautiful part of the world. Long may the pockets of near-wilderness remain.

I'm with you David, I hate cities! I'm so glad I only have to travel just over a mile to enjoy amazing country roads, I feel blessed!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Pursuing the Yearly 5000 Mile Target - The Day 1 of 4 (Decathlon Piaseczno)

What a shame... I believed the mile was 1.604 km. It was 1.609 (and some). While I could see the 8000 km yearly mark viable, making 5000 miles requires 47 km more, and I might be lacking one more day to achieve the goal. Meanwhile:

• Tuesday 29th: Heavy raining and strong wind
• Wednesday 30th: Raining and mild wind
• Thursday 31st: Possible snow, weak wind

After today's ride, it has been 113.1 km to go for the 8000 km mark, and as many as 100 miles to reach 5000 miles... Now, the story of today's ride.

After having studied the weather forecast, I understood I would go nowhere without proper rain trouser covers. In addition to my trouble, Poland is on yet another lockdown now; meaning most of large stores are closed. Luckily, Decathlon have gained their experience from the first lockdown: You order and pay things online, and you can collect the goods at the gate of the selected store just after an hour. I chose Decathlon in Piaseczno because that one not only had goods I needed but it also was far away enough

The attraction of today was SE wind of almost 36 km/h speed (I normally avoid riding during such weather). My Vado felt as it were choking under heavy gusts of the wind, the riding speed was strongly reduced. Moreover, the battery charge was "melting" like butter on hot frying pan... I had to reduce the assistance from 60 down to 40%, meaning a painful ride to Piaseczno.

While in Piaseczno, I was able to immediately collect my order. Then, I had a half of a sub at Subway nearby. I knew it was late and I would return after the sunset. So what? Yet I still had to ride into the wind (or counter the side wind, which was not nice). However, each loop starting into the wind must finally end up with downwind... I replaced the battery some 20 km from home and mercilessly switched to the Turbo mode Combined with the downwind, I was flying!

Piaseczno City Narrow-Gauge is the name of the railway station. The railway is actually operating! Apart of the station (and the related museum, and several theme restaurants in the area), Piaseczno (population of 48,500) is rather boring. It is a "bedroom" for Warsaw, trying to be a modern city.

"Raszyn" Radio Tower in Łazy. Moved there from Raszyn many years ago, the broadcasting station had played important role for many years. It is hosting mobile telephony and digital terrestrial television nowadays.

I was making figures of eight to increase the distance without actually killing myself

Sometimes, I think I should give up. Every single evening after the ride I feel as if I caught cold... Still, the goal is in the reach!

 

[FlatSix911]

Pursuing the Yearly 5000 Mile Target - The Day 1 of 4 (Decathlon Piaseczno)

What a shame... I believed the mile was 1.604 km. It was 1.609 (and some). While I could see the 8000 km yearly mark viable, making 5000 miles requires 47 km more, and I might be lacking one more day to achieve the goal. Meanwhile:

• Tuesday 29th: Heavy raining and strong wind
• Wednesday 30th: Raining and mild wind
• Thursday 31st: Possible snow, weak wind

After today's ride, it has been 113.1 km to go for the 8000 km mark, and as many as 100 miles to reach 5000 miles... Now, the story of today's ride.

After having studied the weather forecast, I understood I would go nowhere without proper rain trouser covers. In addition to my trouble, Poland is on yet another lockdown now; meaning most of large stores are closed. Luckily, Decathlon have gained their experience from the first lockdown: You order and pay things online, and you can collect the goods at the gate of the selected store just after an hour. I chose Decathlon in Piaseczno because that one not only had goods I needed but it also was far away enough

The attraction of today was SE wind of almost 36 km/h speed (I normally avoid riding during such weather). My Vado felt as it were choking under heavy gusts of the wind, the riding speed was strongly reduced. Moreover, the battery charge was "melting" like butter on hot frying pan... I had to reduce the assistance from 60 down to 40%, meaning a painful ride to Piaseczno.

While in Piaseczno, I was able to immediately collect my order. Then, I had a half of a sub at Subway nearby. I knew it was late and I would return after the sunset. So what? Yet I still had to ride into the wind (or counter the side wind, which was not nice). However, each loop starting into the wind must finally end up with downwind... I replaced the battery some 20 km from home and mercilessly switched to the Turbo mode Combined with the downwind, I was flying!

View attachment 75307
Piaseczno City Narrow-Gauge is the name of the railway station. The railway is actually operating! Apart of the station (and the related museum, and several theme restaurants in the area), Piaseczno (population of 48,500) is rather boring. It is a "bedroom" for Warsaw, trying to be a modern city.

View attachment 75308
"Raszyn" Radio Tower in Łazy. Moved there from Raszyn many years ago, the broadcasting station had played important role for many years. It is hosting mobile telephony and digital terrestrial television nowadays.

View attachment 75309
I was making figures of eight to increase the distance without actually killing myself

View attachment 75310
Sometimes, I think I should give up. Every single evening after the ride I feel as if I caught cold... Still, the goal is in the reach!

Stephan, go for it... you are so close you can taste it!

 

[Saratoga Dave]

GO get em, Stefan! Sadly, you're a thousand miles ahead of me this year... I will try and get off to a hot start for 2021 depending on our winter. Great job.

 

[Art Deco]

Pursuing the Yearly 5000 Mile Target - The Day 1 of 4 (Decathlon Piaseczno)

What a shame... I believed the mile was 1.604 km. It was 1.609 (and some). While I could see the 8000 km yearly mark viable, making 5000 miles requires 47 km more, and I might be lacking one more day to achieve the goal. Meanwhile:

• Tuesday 29th: Heavy raining and strong wind
• Wednesday 30th: Raining and mild wind
• Thursday 31st: Possible snow, weak wind

After today's ride, it has been 113.1 km to go for the 8000 km mark, and as many as 100 miles to reach 5000 miles... Now, the story of today's ride.

After having studied the weather forecast, I understood I would go nowhere without proper rain trouser covers. In addition to my trouble, Poland is on yet another lockdown now; meaning most of large stores are closed. Luckily, Decathlon have gained their experience from the first lockdown: You order and pay things online, and you can collect the goods at the gate of the selected store just after an hour. I chose Decathlon in Piaseczno because that one not only had goods I needed but it also was far away enough

The attraction of today was SE wind of almost 36 km/h speed (I normally avoid riding during such weather). My Vado felt as it were choking under heavy gusts of the wind, the riding speed was strongly reduced. Moreover, the battery charge was "melting" like butter on hot frying pan... I had to reduce the assistance from 60 down to 40%, meaning a painful ride to Piaseczno.

While in Piaseczno, I was able to immediately collect my order. Then, I had a half of a sub at Subway nearby. I knew it was late and I would return after the sunset. So what? Yet I still had to ride into the wind (or counter the side wind, which was not nice). However, each loop starting into the wind must finally end up with downwind... I replaced the battery some 20 km from home and mercilessly switched to the Turbo mode Combined with the downwind, I was flying!

View attachment 75307
Piaseczno City Narrow-Gauge is the name of the railway station. The railway is actually operating! Apart of the station (and the related museum, and several theme restaurants in the area), Piaseczno (population of 48,500) is rather boring. It is a "bedroom" for Warsaw, trying to be a modern city.

View attachment 75308
"Raszyn" Radio Tower in Łazy. Moved there from Raszyn many years ago, the broadcasting station had played important role for many years. It is hosting mobile telephony and digital terrestrial television nowadays.

View attachment 75309
I was making figures of eight to increase the distance without actually killing myself

View attachment 75310
Sometimes, I think I should give up. Every single evening after the ride I feel as if I caught cold... Still, the goal is in the reach!

It seems like you are a goal driven person, Stefan. So you should continue to chase it for your own mental health. But if the goal recedes from no fault of yours (weather, Covid, or other "Acts of God"), you are still far ahead of when you started. Don't forget that.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

It seems like you are a goal driven person

That's very right Art. I simply cannot wander aimless. Knowing your daily goal helps planning the battery range as well For Tuesday, I'm thinking of two possible routes:

• North of Warsaw, or
• Bolimów, which is a lovely village westwards.

Taking into account heavy raining and strong wind, I need to plan my clothing meticulously as well. I swear I won't get wet anymore! Next, assistance plans come into consideration. Contingency plans next. If anything goes wrong in Warsaw, I can take a train back. If anything goes wrong in Bolimów, I'll need to call Mr Andrzej the taxi driver

Art, I'm so unhappy if I cannot track my adventures... Two examples:

In 2019, we were on a car trip with my gf @Brix. It was Poland, the Republic (you know what Republic), Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland again. I was taking many nice pictures with my Pentax camera, just to destroy the SD card on the last morning...

One of very few photos remaining from that trip: Brix and Lidia in the Pale Dawn pub in Cesky Tesin (CZ).

That was a wine trip. Here, in Mikulov (CZ), the Czech winery capital. The "red" wine turned out to be white

In East Austria.

At the Balaton Lake, Hungary. An immense "internal sea" of the country.

In Villány, the capital of Hungarian wine-making.

A parrot in Slovakian mountains.

Holy Cross Mountains (Poland). I had a ride there in 2020. (Good luck Brix had her own camera with her...)

In March or April 2020, I destroyed my smartphone on a ride. I instantly bought a replacement but forgot to tell Google to track me. That way, I lost any opportunity to create my Personal Heatmap for most of rides I had in 2020... A tragedy!

 

[Chargeride]

That BW shot is superb, if I'd been asked time and place even with my knowledge of context now , I'd have said Eastern Europe/ Germany 80s.

 

[Chargeride]

In Grassington now or to be exact a village just outside called Linton.
There has been a bit of snow on the hills and went for a quick ride on the roads to recce some paths.
This strangely is a B road as we call them in England, I have no idea if this is true or a sign that has been spun around.

Streamable Video

Watch this video on Streamable.

streamable.com

It is picture postcard here, endless diabolically cute stone houses and churches built in the most unlikely situations and connected with back alleys and tiny stone bridges.

Going for a proper ride tomorrow, followed by beer in front of a roaring fire.
Thats the plan

 

[FlatSix911]

Another empty beach... everyone was inside eating their Christmas dinner.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Another empty beach... everyone was inside eating Christmas dinner.

View attachment 75342 View attachment 75343

I have no doubt that it was a nice view from the house but I think that I would just plop myself down on the sandy beach and dine al fresco!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

In Grassington now or to be exact a village just outside called Linton.

Chargeride: You seem to travel a lot inside Britain for your rides, right?

 

[Readytoride]

Halfway through a very relaxing, psych soothing 20 mile local gravel road ride loop where my neighbor G had said (when we started out) that she would just follow me whereever I wanted to ride - taking any and all pressure off her to make any direction decisions which was fine by me - that, by design because I'm always looking for some sort of adventure, even in my own backyard, we found ourselves facing this:

Deep enough to give pause, bubbling and running with a flooded creek's implied malevolent level of swiftness that gave my less adventurous neighbor pause, enough for her to say with very real concern, as we both looked at the logs someone had thrown into the floodwaters to show that it was indeed deep, that she thought we'd better retrace our route backwards and go another way. I took this shot and assured her it was both possible and passible, and that it would be an adventure. What's a ride without adventure? She gave me a look that clearly implied I was certifiably off my rocker, and said "Fine. You go first."

I stood for a moment, studying the glimpses of road bed I could discern under the rapid overflow to tell me where the shallower parts were, and out loud charted the best course for crossing the small flood, that being alongside the road edge. Then, as I launched my bike into the flood I had a change of mind and tried to thread a line right through the middle over what looked (under water) to be a swale. I would have (notice the past tense, please) been successful had my tires not bogged down in the deep silt and gravel, bringing me to an abrupt standstill several pedal rotations from dry land on the other side. It was a moment when you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the water had won and your feet were about to get soaked. I surrendered as my feet found the road under the flooded water, and turned around, laughing, to G.

"Don't go this way!" I called over my shoulder to her, still laughing as I slogged my way through the remaining creek overflow to the far side before turning to watch her tackle the flood. Bless her heart, she took the exact course I had suggested at the onset, and sailed through the rushing creek without missing a beat, water rising up in an impressively high splashing wave around her tires as she made it from shore to shore without putting a toe in the water. She landed on the other side, her bike drenched in spray, her feet wet from her pedals going into the water, the biggest grin on her face. Fear had been conquered. Elation had taken its place.

That'll show me next time to listen to my own advice now, won't it? Of course not.

We rode the rest of the way home, our feet wet, our hearts light, our conversation animated, and our bikes, somewhat splashed clean from the waters, back to gathering mud and grime from the wet roads.

Surprisingly, for a weekday and a relatively short mid afternoon ride, enroute we had encountered 7 other cyclists out enjoying our gravel roads, 2 of which were arriving in their car with bikes on the car rack to start riding even though the afternoon was already an hour away from becoming late afternoon. I'm guessing the unusual balmy temperature (55°F/12°c) and sunny skies had called to area cyclists, including three other neighbors, to come out for a ride before the cold weather once again put a stranglehold on our region. We were the only ebikes, but in our neck of the woods that invokes simply curiosity and admiration, not scorn. Gravel roads level the playing field for cyclists without the prejudice found on the paved road.

Tomorrow that flooded road will be rimmed in ice, the cold winter winds will commence to blow subfreezing temps, and the bikes will return to patiently waiting in the warm garage for the next balmy, sunny day to ride in seek of another adventure.

Gratuitous photo of the late afternoon sky on my way back to my farm after saying goodbye to G at her driveway a mile up the road.