A December Weekend

Friday night was the Psychiarty & Neurology department's Christmas party, which they cleverly incorporate into a two-day conference. This year it was held at the Lowes hotel on Poydras St. The view from the 10th floor conference facility was really nice on this clear and cold December night. The good ol' Hibernia Bank cupola, lit up in its traditional holiday colors (they also do purple and green for Mardi Gras) was easy to find, although the photo really doesn't do it justice. Looking the other way down Poydras St., toward the river, you see the back of the casino and the entrance to the Riverwalk. Despite the cold, things were very lively down on street level. Back up on the 10th floor, though, we had a nice little party with lots of boiled shrimp and hotel wine. Well, maybe a little too much hotel wine.

Saturday morning was pretty chilly and so I happily waited an extra hour and met Courtney out on the lakefront at 8:00. After leaving the house, I immediately made a u-turn to slip my knee-warmers over my tights. No point freezing those beat-up old joints! We rode the usual Giro route, and when we were on Chef Highway we saw the regular Giro group on its way back. Maybe "group" is an overstatement, because there were only seven of them. Apparently a few were doing the "long" ride out to Slidell, but we never saw any of them. When the group went by, one of them made a U-turn and Courtney thought it might be Robin. We slowed down, and kept looking back, but the rider didn't seem to be catching us. Then he stopped. I figured there was a problem, so I turned around and rode back to him. As it turned out, his freehub, or at least the pawls in it, were shot and he could pedal all he wanted but he wasn't going anywhere. He was parked four miles or so down Chef Highway, and I ended up pushing him the whole distance so he wouldn't have to walk. That's kind of hard on the old back, by the way. I had to switch sides a few times. Luckily, the road is pretty much all flat, but when we had to go just barely uphill to go over a low levee, it was amazing how much harder it got. Apparently an extra 150 pounds makes a difference on the uphills. Who knew! Anyway, we had a pretty nice ride on Saturday, and didn't miss much by not doing the regular Giro.

When I woke up on Sunday I heard something I wasn't expecting. Rain. The forecast was for only a 20% chance of rain, so I checked the radar. It looked like it would be over soon, so I went ahead and headed out to the Morning Call meeting spot where I really didn't expect to see anybody. Wrong again. Sam, Scott and Paul were there ready to go, so we headed across the lake through another little rain shower, hoping for the best. By the time we arrived the rain was over for good, although it was still overcast. The group was small as it often is for the December rides when the weather is sketchy, but we ended up doing a really nice 65 miles of moderate riding with lots of stops. Although it was in the 40s when we started, it must have been 60F by the time we got back. Stopped for lunch at the Abita BrewPub after the ride with Paul, Scott and The Wife, where I had a big ol' hamburger and fries with my Turbodog. Couldn't resist.

Put up some of the Christmas decorations today. It's the time!