Winter Comes

Winter comes.....

It was almost 8 am when I finally got up and checked the radar. I'd been hearing the water dripping from the broken gutter above the bedroom window for hours, but now it seemed to be slacking off. Outside, the streets were wet but the rain was barely noticeable in the little pools of water in the potholes.

The radar was looking surprisingly good, which is to say the rain appeared to be about over. The wind and the temperature, well, those were rapidly going from bad to worse. By 10:00 it looked like the rain was gone for good and I decided I might as well take the Rain Bike out for what would be essentially a ceremonial end-of-year spin on the levee. I knew it would still be wet, and I knew the temperature would be dropping and the wind increasing, but it was the last chance to get in a few miles before the arrival of even more uncomfortable winter weather later in the evening.

The temperature was still 52 F when I went out. It would be 48 when I returned less than two hours later. Knowing that my feet would probably get wet despite the Rain Bike's ample fenders, and considering there would probably be a cold mist falling, I dressed as if I was going out for a ride in the low 40s - long tights, shoe-covers, and wind vest. I didn't regret it.

By New Orleans standards, this week is
looking to be miserable.

I was quite surprised by the number of other riders I saw up on the levee. Perhaps they were all thinking the same thing I was. An easy spin in this morning's wind meant spinning along at like 14 mph a lot of the time, so I was not very motivated to go beyond Williams Blvd. where I turned around, picking up a bit of tailwind here and there, but mostly just more crosswind. Coming down off of the levee at Dakin Street I felt my rear tire go squishy as I made the fast downhill right curve onto River Road. Another flat. I barely made it across the railroad tracks before the rim started hitting the ground, so I stopped at Breads on Oak to fix it, finally putting about 35 psi into the tire with my ancient and barely functional Silca frame pump before limping the last couple of miles home.

At least I know that absolutely my last flat tire of the year. The coming week is looking to be really cold, at least by New Orleans standards. Multiple days that dip below freezing are fairly unusual, and for those of us who ride before work in the mornings the combination of wind and cold is definitely going to take its toll. At least I nowadays have enough winter riding gear on hand to make it feasible, if not comfortable or even advisable, to ride. The city has its freeze warnings up and although it probably won't get cold enough long enough to freeze anybody's pipes here in town south of the lake, folks on the northshore and elsewhere are probably busy insulating pipes and bringing in plants today.