Wings and Wildlife

Tuesday's ride was only half-hard, which is to say that we had a relatively easy ride back from Ormond. I was both disappointed and surprised to find the remnants of the weekend still lingering about in my legs. Granted, there had been a number of intense efforts and sprints, but the distances were moderate and the duration of the hard efforts limited. Such is the price one pays for the wisdom of age, I suppose. The Daughter and her friend left today to head back up to Iowa City after a brief visit. Yesterday evening her friend, who is training for a 50-mile run, got dropped off out at Ormond and ran the 20 miles back to Audubon Park. The Wife rode with her the whole way to keep her company, while The Daughter drove the car back to Audubon Park where I met her. Then we rode upriver on the bike path, eventually meeting up with them about ten miles out. By then it was almost dark and we were riding in a cloud of gnats and flying termites. The streetlights on the road below were swarming with bugs, mostly termites, I think, since it's that time of year. On the bike, they were getting stuck in my hair, going down the front of my jersey, and into my eyes, mouth and nose. It was like that most of the way back, riding in the dark at 8 mph and being pelted by a virtual rainstorm of insect life. It was like something right out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

So this morning the legs were feeling better and I was up early to meet the Wednesday ride. It's been interesting riding along the levee lately because the water level has gotten pretty high. In most places the batture is entirely underwater, which has attracted all sorts of wildlife to that thin strip between the levee and the willow trees. Birds, reptiles, jumping fish, rabbits and native New Orleanians with fishing poles in one hand and beer in the other abound. The ride itself was good. Scott has started riding with the group again, his left hand still in a brace following the surgery he needed to reattach a nerve that was severed in his crash a couple of weeks ago. When he rode up to the group this morning Donald asked him if he'd taken up boxing. (I guess you had to be there.....) Anyway, everyone was taking nice long pulls today since the group was small and the wind was light. It was a good day to look at the wildlife. In fact, as we were on the cool-down segment of the ride after the playground, I heard Big Richard behind me asking if I had my camera.

He'd spotted some kind of water snake swimming alongside the levee. I turned around and tried to get a photo, but the snake spotted us and started heading for the trees. Hopefully I'll make it out to the lakefront this evening for the training race. I just got back from Whole Food where I ran into Jenn while buying a sandwich. Then, before I rode back to the office, I couldn't resist stopping over at PJ's on Magazine for a Granita. Now I just feel stuffed.....