Back to the Levee

Well, it was back to the levee again this morning for the Tuesday long ride, but not until I had checked the weather radar to see where the next thunderstorm was heading. It seems Mother Nature is trying to make up for the severe lack of rain we had all fall, winter and spring, and so now this semitropical swamp we live in is beginning to feel kind of rain-foresty and tropical. The streets barely have time to dry before the next downpour arrives, and I'm thinking I need to check the water level in those buckets up in my attic that have been catching the drips from the leaks in the roof. The forecast for the forseeable future is pretty much the same, too. With all the rain, the roofers must be getting behind, and indeed I haven't heard from mine in a week and still don't have a tentative date scheduled, so I'll have to give him a call today and see what's up.

So anyway, as I'm riding down Willow Street this morning toward the levee I can see a train crossing the road up ahead. It held me up for a few minutes and then when I got up onto the levee bike path there were only a couple of people there. Hmmmm, that's odd. We rolled out anyway, a minute or two late, and eventually the rest of the usual crew, some of whom had been delayed by the train farther downriver, turned up. By the time we were out to the country club, the group was at full strength, the pace had gotten completely out of hand and I was seeking shelter nearer the back. I'm not sure what was going on up there, but with the combination of Todd, VJ, Rob, Eddie, and a few other fast guys, the pace was staying just under 30 mph. My legs are still feeling a little reluctant after last weekend's abuse, so I was trying not to get too involved up at the front, especially after the start of today's "Rob and Donald Show." All I know is that there were a few words exchanged owing to somebody not riding the way sombody else wanted him to, and then the pace started to get kind of erratic as a little "I can pull harder than you" thing developed up at the front. Whatever. I got home tired and whipped up an enormous smoothie with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, but I still feel like I need some sleep or something.

The Team Time Trial just got postponed due to "scheduling conflicts" after having been on the calendar since January, so I don't know what that's about, but I'll bet it ends up conflicting with the trip to Florida we're planning in September. We're hoping to get some of the guys over to a crit in Mobile, AL this weekend. At least I got the results of last Saturday's criteriums up on the websites last night and just need to update the LCCS rankings some time this week.

I was supposed to ride over to City Hall this morning at 10:30 for some sort of bicycle press conference involving the Regional Planning Commission, but when I checked the radar I was pretty sure I'd end up standing on the City Hall steps in the rain. Sure enough, it did rain a bit around 11:00, although it was fairly light. Ah well, another civic duty shirked.