To the Moon

The moon slipping down toward the horizon as the sun rises behind us.

I went out Thursday morning to, hopefully, meet the 6:15 am group for the long levee ride.  We are all still experimenting with morning ride options, so I really had no idea who might be there.  As it turned out there were a few riders waiting at Dakin Street, so with tail lights flashing we waited for a break in the fairly light morning traffic and just took the lane.  At around 22 mph we were passed by only a couple of impatient, possibly suicidal, drivers.  I was surprised that Brian, who was at the front, didn't stop right after Ochsner to ride up the grass and instead continued another half mile or so to the first road leading up the levee.  That meant we had to stop at the traffic signal at Causeway and get a little tangled up with the traffic there.

Anyway, the ride itself was very smooth.  We picked up a few more riders when we got up to the bike path, so it was mostly just smooth 22 mph paceline out toward the setting moon and back.  On the way back we stayed on the bike path, dropping down on the grass just before the Ochsner pipes.  A car let us in and we just rode that last mile single-file without much of a hassle.  It's not really something I'd like to do alone, but with a little group it wasn't too bad, especially since traffic isn't moving all that fast there.  Of course there was that one asshole who just *had* to pass us even if it meant risking a head-on collision with oncoming traffic.  Naturally, we caught back up to the dumbass by the time we got to Oak Street where traffic always slows to a crawl anyway.

This morning I met Ben and Ben over at Tulane's Reily Center for a 6 am recover ride out to the lakefront with a stop at the Fair Grinds Coffeehouse.  We rode out on Carrollton which was fairly quiet except for the  usual game of chicken at the Palmetto on-ramp to I-10.  On the way back we opted for Jeff. Davis which is still all torn up.  When are they going to put the new asphalt on that street?  It's been months.