It was relatively warm this morning with temperatures above 60F, and as I rode out to the levee I got just a little bit of rain. Indeed, the roads were wet and the air heavy with moisture, but thankfully the wind was minimal. A good-sized group came together for the Thursday long ride, but within the first couple of miles Rob rode off the front, never to be seen again until we were most of the way back. Along the way he picked up Carey. Meanwhile, back in the laughing section, we had a steady and quite civilized paceline for most of the ride, with The Donald pulling the train along for one of his patented long pulls. I was feeling pretty good today and was already thinking about doing a few short "catch-up" intervals off the back of the group. Just thinking about them, you understand! Luke is still out on his time trial bike doing short practice TTs, and Robin showed up on his track bike again.
The Mississippi River is getting kind of high lately. In some places the water is lapping up against the base of the levee. A few more feet and they will probably start opening parts of the spillways.
We caught Rob and Carey as we entered Jefferson Parish, but soon they were dangling off the front again. Near the end of the ride, after most of the riders had already split off, I noticed that my rear tire was nearly flat, but being ever the optimist (especially when the roads are wet and the tires are filthy), I hoped I might be able to nurse it the remaining few miles home without having to stop and change it. Well, I got most of the way down Oak Street before it started bottoming out and so I had to stop in front of the Z'otz "post-punk" coffee house and make the change, getting home fairly late.
So now I'm rushing around so I can get to work at a reasonable time and I go downstairs to get on the commuter and, of course, it has a flat! Great. I check my watch and it's about 9:50 - just enough time to walk the six blocks down to catch the Tulane downtown shuttle.
With Washington D.C. essentially shut down today because of the inauguration, I still can't reach a human at the Department of Homeland Security to tell them they have screwed up and put the wrong link on the website announcing their most recent Broad Agency Announcement for Centers of Excellence. I've left three voicemails and one e-mail since yesterday with no response. I guess they are all lurking around in dark sunglasses on D.C. rooftops today protecting the homeland.
We're off to Iowa City tomorrow morning and I'm thinking I might be able to sneak in a short ride early in the morning before leaving for the airport, because I'm definitely not going to be doing any riding up in the land of frozen corn. Still don't know if The Daughter will be able to compete, so we might be making a nice $800 trip into the "wintery mix" weather without being able to cheer for our own. The forecast for our drive from the Quad Cities airport to I.C. is not looking particularly encouraging:
"Periods of freezing drizzle early...changing to a wintry mix by afternoon. High near 30F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 60%."
Should be interesting.
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