Cool

A little bit of a cool front finally came through following yesterday's rainstorms, dropping this morning's temperature all the way down into the lower 60s! Now, yes, I know some people don't consider that to be "cool" by any stretch, but everything's relative. A few weeks from now I'll be waking to temperatures already around 80F and the 60s will be both a climatologic and cultural distant memory. The only fly in the ointment this morning was the brisk Northwest wind. Brisk enough, I guess, to dissuade more than a couple of the usual crowd from showing up. Since my regular "training" front wheel currently looks like a Pringles potato chip, I decided to put some rubber on the cool Speedcific / Nimble Spider front wheel that I'm buying from Kevin, so I mounted up a nice Michelin Pro that Ronnie had given me. It had a huge gash all the way through the casing right in the middle of the tread, but I had sewn in a boot a while ago, so it was time to try it out. No problems! Once I get my regular front wheel rebuilt, I'll have to put some proper rubber on the thing.

By the time we made it all the way out to the Ormond plantation turnaround there were only four of us left to battle the remaining 21 miles of crosswind. On the plus side, nobody had to ride in the gutter! We took the first few miles of the return trip pretty easy, but then Donald looked at his watch and asked Tim if he thought he could tow us back in at about 30 mph because he was running late for work. That was right about when Tim had to head home, of course. Donald and I picked up the pace a bit, but of course never threatened the 30 mph mark. It was a good ride anyway, and as an added benefit, I didn't get hit by any trucks today!

So it looks like Gina V won't be able to stop over in New Orleans on her way to the Athens Twilight. I got a TM from her yesterday telling me she was lying in a hospital bed. Apparently she had some sort of gastritis and had gotten pretty sick so they admitted her to run some tests and things that mostly didn't provide a solid answer. Anyway, she called last night to say that they had released her, so she was planning on hitting the road this morning for the long haul straight from AZ to Athens. Between crashes and illness, this year's racing season hasn't been kind to her so far.

I think I'll probably be the only one in the office tomorrow. Everyone else will either be out of town or at the first day of the Jazz Fest.