A Friday Morning

It was a nice morning for a ride. The temperature was comfortably in the 50s, the wind was light and the sky was clear.  If the dog hadn't awakened me at 4:30 am (I swear he's on EST) I probably would have been a little more energetic, but at least I got myself out the door more or less on time.  I pulled on some long tights and a long-sleeve jersey to cut the morning chill, although neither were stictly necessary, and made my way down Carrollton Avenue's bike lane and then Willow Street.  The streetcar barn there is still not quite empty at that time of the morning, although many of the streetcars are fired up and ready to go with their fancy new headlights and LED blinky lights.  Up on the levee there was only Scott, and as I approached he clipped in and rolled down the little hill at the pipes.  There aren't usually many riders on Fridays, and quite often it's only Scott and me for most of the ride. Today was no exception. There was a slight breeze coming out of the northwest and I tucked into Scott's draft as he started his first long easy pull at the front.  As we came to Ochsner Hospital I saw him point down the levee toward the river.  There were two coyotes trotting along the batture in the area that was cleared a couple of years ago.  I said, "I've got to get a better look" as I turned around, but Scott didn't hear me and continued on.  I considered trying to take a picture, but it was still fairly dark and they were pretty far away, so I decided it would probably just be another of those fuzzy UFO-style photos so I didn't.  I watched them for a little while, as they watched me, and then continued on, slowing down for a bit when I saw someone walking down toward the river.  I wanted to be sure he wasn't accompanied by a little off-leash dog since that would have made a nice breakfast for the coyotes.  Scott, of course, eventually figured out that I wasn't behind him any more and doubled back, so I met up with him again a little while later.

After a while we met up with Taylor, slowing down so he could make a U-turn and catch up to us.  We rolled along the rest of the way out to the turnaround at a comfortable 20 mph or so.  Heading back downriver we picked up more of a tailwind, which kept the speed closer to 22 or 23 mph which was pretty typical for a Friday morning levee ride.  So I'm hoping I might finally make it across the lake on Sunday if something doesn't come up. The temperatures are returning to seasonal normal, or just slightly above it, which means a ride-time temperature around 40 and a high of around 60.  Not too bad for the last weekend in January.  Anyway, the Tulane team just got approval to purchase a trailer.  That should be interesting.  Anyone have tips on outfitting an enclosed trailer for bike races?