Ride, Lobster, Ride

Sitting here on a Sunday afternoon playing MP3s from the laptop on the antique Realistic System Seven and finally drinking that bottle of Abita "A Charitable Pilsner" SOS. I'm not really much of a fan of Pilsner, but hey, it's a good cause and an interesting website, so I'm doing my part. With my legs finally feeling more or less normal again, I had been considering a long ride in the country for Saturday, but I ended up just setting my sights on the good ol' Giro Ride instead.


So there I was at 6:05 am Saturday looking out the door and trying to decide whether to put the headlight on or not. I decided to leave it at home, but most definitely turned on the rear blinky light. A little cool front had come through, dropping the temperature down a few degrees from normal, although I still went for an iced coffee when I arrived at Starbucks. I mean, it was cooler, but really. Anyway, although the Giro Ride took a little while to really get going, and we were missing a few of the guys who normally animate the front of the group, it turned out to be a pretty good workout. Sixty miles later I rolled the bike back into the house thinking, "Man, I sure feel better after the Giro when it's not 95 degrees and I'm not totally dehydrated and I can actually still see through my sunglasses." Imagine that. Other than a little tree-trimming out in the back yard, I pretty much blew off the rest of the day, sitting on the couch where I watched two full episodes of Star Wars on TV. Yeah, I do that sometimes.


Last night the neighbors came over with an ice chest full of Maine lobsters plucked out of the Atlantic the day before. Apparently having a brother who is a lobsterman has its advantages. These were "Shedders," which means that you can generally crack them open with your hands. You won't find these at your favorite New Orleans seafood restaurant! Anyway, between the lobster feast and the accompanying adult alcoholic beverages I was ready for bed by 10 pm. I wasn't what you'd call a highly productive day, but then again, you need some of those now and then.


Sunday was another Giro Ride for me. The morning temperature was even cooler than it had been on Saturday, which is to say that it may have dipped down to 75F or so. It felt absolutely great. As usual, the Sunday Giro crowd was a bit smaller and the ride a bit easier, despite a significant WNW breeze. As we were riding out along Hayne Blvd. someone rolled up alongside me and asked if I was "going out to Ft. Pike." This meant that at least a couple of people were planning to extend the ride by an extra 20 miles. I told him "no," but was still kind of considering it. I had put a Powerbar in my pocket before leaving home, and it wasn't going to be miserably hot, so it the back of my mind I was holding it as an option. Then, on the service road, Keith (Desire Title) flatted. A few of us stopped to help as the rest of the group continued on. Robin grabbed the wheel and after trying two different tubes we finally got back on the road only to immediately discover that my own front tire was also going flat. That meant another stop, so by the time we got going again we were probably fifteen minutes behind the group. As we got our paceline rolling down Chef Highway I did a little math and figured we'd probably see the group somewhere just after the Highway 11 split. This might have presented a problem. With the West wind, the group would have a nice tailwind, so it was entirely possible that they'd be going 30 mph when we turned around to join them. Luckily they were still going pretty easy, so everyone was able to make the u-turn across four lanes of state highway and merge back into the group. I guess the cooler weather had everyone in the mood to just enjoy the ride today. A couple of minutes later, Eddie flatted and everyone stopped. Other than a couple of brief surges and sprints up the bridges, the pace never really got too fast after that.


With tomorrow being a holiday, I'm planning on meeting a few people (I hope) on the levee at 7 am for a long ride. If I can get any takers, we may ride across the river twice on the Luling/Destrehan bridge. I could use a couple of miles of something -- anything -- that's not flat.