Back In The Saddle Again
Has been quite some time since I last posted on this forum. Dreadfully hot spring and summer weather meant the bikes stayed home for months at a time while we stayed closeted with the AC. The few forays out were short around-the-block trips as the heat and humidity allowed. Nothing exciting to write about, and already well photographed from prior posts.
Today the weather had thrown off the suffocating cloak of wilting heat and panting humidity for a breath of fresh cool dry air. Perfect riding weather. My ebike neighbor and I got together at 10am to watch 18 carriages (mostly 4-in-hands) go off from a neighboring estate. We were joined by 9 cyclists who had paused in their ride to spectate as well. Much cheering and clapping on our part for each exquisite turnout was rewarded with tipped top hats from the gentlemen on the carriages and smiles and returned waves from the impeccably dressed coaching passengers. It was quite the exciting, unexpected treat for the cyclists who, one and all, had whipped out their cell phones to record the entorage of stunningly beautiful teams and pairs put to gleaming antique carriages dating back to well over a century when they were first put behind a team of horses. What a different world it was back then.
As the last of the carriages embarked on their 5 mile drive down the road and through neighboring estates, and the cycling group, phones now tucked securely away, followed at a sedate pace until they had the road to themselves again, my neighbor and I returned to my farm where she dropped me off to head home to grab her Vado and meet me back at my place for our planned ride.
We took off on our Vados, riding a 21 mile loop down into the next county and back - a loop that will be the route used for an ebike group club ride this October from my farm. Ride With GPS and my Garmin recorded the route for me so that I could uploaded it for the club participants to preview. I didn't take time to stop for photos because we were having too much fun talking and zipping along the roads, so here is a photo snatched from a prior ride on the same route:
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It was a beautiful ride, and exceptionally fun with lots of smooth paved rolling road just perfect for blasting down with the wind in your face and hands clenching the handlebars tightly, trying not to touch the brakes until the descents became too fast for one's nerves. Then up the next rolling slope to blast down the other side. We were like two kids on holiday!
Along the border of one large estate a terrific rain and wind storm last month had produced several wind sheers, one uprooting vunerable old oak trees and snapping other trees in half like matchsticks. The resulting carnage of now dead wood was still littering the landscape like the aftermath of a battle, but we noticed among the broken foliage the chipper trucks, vehicles and staff of the tree companies hard at work picking up the debris and returning the estate to its pristine condition. It was just a small area, and once we were past the sad remains of so many fallen trees, the landscape shrugged off the carnage, left the woods behind, and once again opened up to proudly present an endless vista of spectacular natural beauty. The charm of the views had been aided and abetted by the hardworking staff of the resident estates who had claimed the lands as far as the eye could see, grooming pastures, fields, woodlands, stone walls and fencing for the entire route home.
My neighbor and I whole heartedly agreed that this route was our favorite paved road ride. Bar none.
It is nice to be back in the saddle again.
I hope to be writing more as the rides begin again in the cooler pre-autumn days of September.
I was too busy chatting, as usual!
. Our planned snack stop, a military golf course, was nearby, and they happened to have compressed air for their golf carts, so we after the initial manual pumping, we completed the reinflation there. I knew my tire luck wouldn't last forever, but, what the heck was a staple doing out on a country road in the middle of nowhere???! Laying in wait for some unsuspecting cyclist, I suppose 
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