Unexpectations

Although The Daughter is in town for a few days, I had been expecting a fairly routine weekend -- a couple of regular Giro Rides and maybe an afternoon in the French Quarter. There are certainly times when I enjoy kicking back and sinking into the relative comfort of familiar routine. This weekend it lasted only until about 12:30 on Saturday, at which point our dog attacked her dog in a dispute apparently involving a piece of deer antler. As one might expect, the little dog got the short end of that stick and after much excited yelping, mostly of the canine variety, we found a deep inch-long gash in his neck. That meant a trip out to the Metairie emergency veterinarian to get his neck sewn back together and a rain check on the planned afternoon excursion to the WWII museum while the little guy recovered from the anaesthesia. So I set my sights on Sunday. . . . .

I was up early yesterday and arrived at the Starbucks with plenty of time to sit down with a cup of coffee as the other riders filtered in. The Sunday Giro Ride is typically smaller and easier than Saturday's ride, and judging by the relatively small number of riders who showed up, that's exactly what I was expecting. Of course, anyone who has done as many group training rides as I knows full well that the only thing you can safely expect of such rides is the unexpected. So I wasn't too shocked when, shortly after we came down onto Hayne Blvd., Woody, Rob and a couple others suddenly launched off the front of the group. A gap opened immediately as the riders near the front seemed quite disinclined to mount a chase. When I saw Mike W. go by, I went with him and soon we had a little group of four in full-on chase mode. Mike took a monster pull at one point and got us really close, but the surge was a little too hard and none of the rest of us had enough to finalize the deal, so there we were -- no-man's land. Our pace settled down to a more sustainable speed and after we made the right turn toward Chef Highway we lost on rider, leaving just Francis, Mike and me. We were going pretty good, though, so we continued to sort-of, kind-of chase, despite the obvious fact that we were ever do slowly losing ground on the guys up the road. Somewhere down Chef Highway, VJ suddenly appeared, having bridged up to us on his TT bike. He went to the front and pulled for at least a mile. Mike pulled off around Highway 11, and eventually a small group caught us somewhere before the turnaround, but it was a good workout nonetheless. The ride back featured a few more fast stretches, punctuated by a stop for a flat tire, and I arrived back home with another 60 miles in the legs without feeling too terribly wasted.

So we decided to take the streetcar down to the French Quarter for a quick little shopping trip. It was warm and muggy, but with all the windows open we were having a nice ride. Half-way there we suddenly we heard a clap of thunder that made half of the passengers jump right out of their seats. The torrential rain started shortly thereafter. Fortunately I'd brought along a backpack with three umbrellas and a rain jacket for just such an occasion. Unfortunately, it was raining so hard that by the time we'd walked from Canal Street to the Jax Brewery my pants and shoes were thoroughly soaked. We didn't stay too long and an hour later headed back to the St. Charles Ave. streetcar just as the rain was starting to let up. Great timing, eh?

So this morning I figured I'd go for an easy recovery ride. As is usual for a Monday, there was nobody at the meeting spot, so I pushed off in a 39x14 and headed upriver on the bike path. When I got to the playground, however, I could see the flashing lights of a couple of police cars up ahead. I knew immediately what it was. They've been working on the supports for the Huey P. Long bridge expansion and have been periodically closing a short section of the bike path. I decided that instead of going around it via River Road, I'd just turn around and ride down to Audubon Park. There I rode a few easy laps of the old 1.8 mi. loop under the oaks amid the morning walkers and joggers. Not a bad way to start off the week, actually.