The Western Sky

Damp roads from yesterday's rain, together with a slowly approaching cold front, must have kept a lot of people from riding this morning. I myself spent a little time staring out the window at the wet street while checking the radar.  Off to the west was a line of rain showers, but it was pretty clear that wouldn't arrive for a few more hours. The streets didn't look too wet, so I decided to go despite the 12 mph northwest wind. Just to be on the safe side, I wore two jerseys and arm-warmers.  A bit of overkill, but the possibility of being sprayed with water while in the middle of the WeMoRi group made it seem like a reasonable decision.

I got out to the lakefront a few minutes later than usual, so when I hit Lakeshore Drive I turned west rather than east, turning around at Marconi and then again near the bridge.  A minute later, as I was crawling around at 15 mph, Woody and Joe came flying past.  They surprised me a bit and despite the fact they weren't going really full-speed, it took me a little while to get up to speed and latch on.  Looking back, I couldn't see any lights at all. So I stayed mostly at the back until Joe took off just prior to the bridge and Woody didn't react. On City Park Avenue when Woody eased up I asked him if it had been a small group.  He said there were only like seven or eight people that morning. I ended up riding alone down Marconi until three riders came by.  They all turned off to go back to the parking lot at Robert E. Lee, so I continued on solo.  Looking back I still couldn't see anybody.  Then at Filmore I saw a couple of WeMoRi riders waiting. I turned around and waited with them until another couple of guys rolled past. Anyway, it was kind of a strange WeMoRi this morning.  Off to the west the sky was looking pretty dark, so I just headed back home rather than making my usual stop at Starbucks. As it turned out, the line of rain kind of petered out and most of it went to the north, so now the temperature is gradually falling as the cold front moves fully through. We should be down to the low 50s or maybe even the upper 40s tomorrow morning. I'm thinking it will feel colder than that.

As I was contemplating the weather and my lackluster morning's training, only three blocks from home, my rear tire went flat. Sigh....   Just rode it in on the rim.