Playing It By Ear

When I headed out for Lakeshore Drive this morning to meet the Giro Ride, there was a plan in place: Get in 60 miles or so, shower, drive up to Baton Rouge to visit the Mother in Law, stop by the niece's new place with presents for the kids, and then hustle back to NOLA in time to pick The Daughter up from the airport. It was a good plan.

Today's Giro Ride started out with a little group way off the front while we were still on Lakeshore Drive, but things came back together when everybody stopped to waddle across the wet steel grate on top of the Seabrook bridge. The pace was fairly typical for this time of year, gradually ramping up all the way down Chef Highway with a little sprint just before the turnaround. Then, on the way back a few of us rolled off the front before everyone really got going again, but we knew we'd be caught quickly, thanks to the nice tailwind. After two flats on the service road, the group, at least what was left of it, lost its momentum and we rolled in the rest of the way pretty easy. At least I had a chance to chat with Brad Hecker, who's in town for the holidays, for a few minutes while we waited for Brett to change his flat.

When I arrived home The Wife was ready to roll out for Baton Rouge, so she rushed over to Starbucks to pick up some coffee while I rushed through a quick shower. A few minutes later the phone rang. It was The Wife telling me that The Daughter's flight had been cancelled again (for the third time) and they were going to bus the whole airport to Chicago. So our plans went in the dumpster and we'd be playing it by ear instead. The Daughter won't be in NOLA until tomorrow, which BTW is a full 48 hours later than she was supposed to arrive. Although it was nice not to have to rush, the downside was that we ended up spending a lot more time in BR than I'd been led to expect. Then, on the way home, we stopped at the big outlet mall in Gonzales which, at least for me, is just pure torture. At least we finally got to get something to eat, because that cranberry scone and cup of coffee I'd had at 10 am was pretty much burned up by 4:30. Just for the record, you should know that starving yourself after a training ride is definitely not recommended training protocol.