Thanksgiving Week Weather

Saturday Birthday Giro Heading Out

As she often does this time of year, Mother Nature has been toying with us. I went out into the dark on Monday morning to meet up with the Mellow Monday group at City Park. The temperature was in the low 60s, so actually not bad at all, but the forecast for the week was a little questionable. There was a steady rain most of that night and I awoke to find the streets soaked. Most of the rain had ended by around 5:30 but considering how things looked I debated for a while if it would be worth going out for a ride. In the end, I decided to take the Pennine out for a spin on the levee, and by the time I pumped up the tires and rolled out the door I knew I wouldn't be at the levee by 6 am. I didn't think that would be a problem, though, because I was pretty sure nobody would be there. So as I rode up the ramp from River Road I was quite surprised to see someone waiting, especially since I was at least five minutes late. It was Mike, aka Gumbo 66, who was still in town from Seattle. Although the bike path was wet, it wasn't all that bad, so we rode out to the upriver end of Jefferson Parish and back without incident ... until he flatted. Riding on the levee when it's wet like that comes with a high probability of a flat caused by a teeny tiny shard of whatever aggregate has been shedding from the asphalt for the past twenty years.

Rain Bike Tuesday

By Wednesday morning there was a strong wind blowing. Strong enough that I considered turning around and heading back home long before reaching the lakefront. In the end I persevered, but by the time I got there the WeMoRi, what little there was of it to start with, had been blown to pieces. I got onto the back of the three or four riders who were left and was promptly dropped along Wisner when the pace surged and my legs and lungs didn't, so I cut across the park and picked them up on the flip-side. It was a shorter ride than usual, battling the front wheel in a 10-20 mph north wind the whole time.

As usual, there was a Thanksgiving Day Giro Ride the next day. It was chilly start, but at least the wind had died down a bit. Nobody seemed to be quite in the mood for a mid-week hammerfest, so while the pace remained brisk it was a little easier than usual. I arrived back home in plenty of time to make the usual two trips to the grocery store as Candy cooked a turkey and related stuff. Fortunately the neighbors came over to eat, because four pies, rice and shrimp, salad, and ten pounds of turkey would have been challenging for just the two of us. 

I was off on Friday, of course, so there was really no good reason to go out at 5:30 am in a cold drizzle to see if anyone would show up for Friendly Friday. Of course I did anyway. It was only slightly miserable with the temperature in the 50s and occasional light rain. I arrived home cold and wet of course.

Saturday was the Giro, and also my 70th birthday. Luckily the weather was much improved, although still colder than I like. Being my birthday I was obliged to ride at least my age in miles, which would mean tacking an additional ten miles or so onto the Giro. As I dropped the bike onto the basement floor that morning I heard the unmistakable "thump" of a flat rear tire. A tiny shard of glass or metal was stuck in the tire and it took me quite a while to remove it. I finally got it fixed, arriving at Starbucks only a few minutes later than usual. The ride itself was pretty steady, and it was easy to sit in the draft where I like to be this time of year. On the way back there was the usual surge between the casino bridge and Seabrook (which still has the right lane blocked off). For some reason I optimistically decided to put in a little sprint halfway up the Seabrook bridge, so I came around whoever was ahead of me and immediately slammed into some big piece of debris in the closed-off right lane that dramatically blew out my front tire as if a bomb had gone off. Fortunately I didn't go down. I gingerly limped to the top of the bridge on the flat front where I could fix it. I still needed to put in a few birthday miles, so Pat and Charles decided to keep me company. We stopped briefly at the gas station on Harrison and then did a couple of laps around City Park before I headed  home with maybe 40 psi in the tire. It was only later that I discovered the casing had been cut and the tube was bulging out of the hole. Good thing I hadn't been able to fully inflate it because the valve stem was too short and I had to MacGyver a valve extender by cutting the end off of a plastic valve cap. The forecast for Sunday was looking bleak.

It rained much of the night and into the morning, so there was no chance of a Sunday Giro, but by noon things were looking better. I ended up going out to the levee alone around 1 pm for an easy 44 miles. By then the bike path was basically dry, thanks in no small part to the 10 mph north wind that accompanied the cold front. After a while the sun actually came out, which made things a little better even if I was generally unmotivated and spent a lot of time coasting and looking at the scenery. I mean, it's the end of November, so what the hell. I still had lots of turkey, salad, and lemon meringue pie to deal with back home anyway.

Another Flat Friday

It was much colder this morning for the Mellow Monday ride. With the temperature around 49°F I finally dug the long tights out of the drawer where they'd been hiding since last Spring. Along with the cold temperature came even more north wind, so I was quite surprised to see a seven or eight people when I arrived at the Museum of Art. I was feeling tired and lazy, but apparently not everyone else was. When we came around the loop at Seabrook and started back, I moved way over to the right because there was a car about to pass us. When I did, I rolled straight through a big patch of glass that had once been a bottle. It took about 30 seconds for the rear tire to go flat. Luckily everyone stopped while I fixed it on Lakeshore Drive with the cold wind blowing off the lake. Then, as we approached the Bayou St. John bridge there was an unexpected surge of speed. Jeff went past me mumbling, "I wonder what got into them?" That's when I went to shift to a bigger gear, only to have nothing happen. I looked down and realized I'd left it in the small ring after changing the flat! By the time I shifted to the big ring there was already a gap and I just couldn't summon the enthusiasm needed to close it, so I rode in the rest of the way behind the group, managing to catch every red light and having to stop behind a line of cars in the left lane in order to turn off of Marconi onto Filmore. I was probably four minutes behind when I got back to the museum and by then everyone had already headed home except for Mike who was loading  his bike into his car. At least the weather should be improving for the next few days before the next cold front arrives.