East Meets West - Coming Together

A rare cool front came through earlier this week, and although the morning temperature has still been around 80F, the drop in humidity has everyone prematurely thinking about Fall.  Of course, we are still a very long and hot way from Fall around here, but the sensation of having sweat actually evaporate from my skin has been a welcome relief, however temporary.

The Tuesday/Thursday morning levee ride group, which has been recently disrupted and effectively evicted from its usual route because of the Corps of Engineers' work along the river, is finally starting to come back together as people figure out how and when and where they can meet up out on the lakefront.  For those of us coming from uptown it has meant an earlier 5:45 am start and a twenty minute trek through town, punctuated by a few stop lights on the way out and considerably more on the way back.  We have been hitting Lakeshore Drive right around 6:10, and then heading west to meet up with the Metairie/Kenner group that is heading east.  This morning there were a couple of people waiting around West End where the eastbound group meets the westbound group.  By the time we were all together heading back east on Lakeshore drive the group was probably up to a dozen or so.  The Strava Activity Playback shows it nicely, at least for those riders in the group who upload their rides to Strava.  The best thing about the playback is that you can figure out when the various groups pass key locations, which makes it a lot easier for everyone to eventually come together.

Any opportunity for a nap

This morning the weather was great with just a light breeze and still a noticeable remnant of the cool front. As we rode through City Park we spotted one of the Coyotes that have been living there and occasionally picking off pet dogs.  We had a nice long paceline going on the Lake Trail, both coming and going, so in many ways it was like being back on the river levee since there were a lot of the same riders.

Tomorrow we'll be meeting up at 6:30 at the Reily Center for the Friday Tulane coffee ride.  This is getting to be kind of a standard easy Friday ride out to the lakefront and back with a stop at Fair Grinds. This was one of the very first dedicated coffee shops that I came across back in the 80s, although it might have had a different name back then.  The current name is a play on "Fair Gounds" which is what the nearby horse racing track, and location of the Jazz Fest, is called.    A few of the Tulane riders are back in town, and there are a couple of new ones as well, so I hope a few of them can make it.  This will be the last free weekend for a while since the whole month of August is packed with LAMBRA races, most of which involve championships of one sort or another.