And More!

Last Thursday it was in the 40's.  I rode in tights and winter boots. On Friday, I swapped those for shorts and short sleeves. I rode to some friend's house for drinks, carrying flip flops and a sundress in my frame bag.

Welcome to spring in Minnesota.

It's hard to convince my brain that it's ok to wear shorts when I'm riding by lakes still filled with ice.

The sun and 70's stayed on Saturday so I ventured into Wisconsin to take advantage of the hillier, better maintained roads. I even escaped the wind while I was there. Of course as soon as I crossed the river back into MN I was given the opportunity to practice riding into a headwind.....for three hours.

I could've sworn I never had the wind at my back, but then does anyone ever really notice when the wind is at her back?

Since it felt like summer, we ended the day by having our first ghetto bonfire of the season, complete with redneck drinks.

Sunday brought more adventures and a lot of bridges. Seven bridge crossings later, I can now say I've conquered my fear of riding across bridges with a side wind.

Since the weather forecast for later in the week is back to 40's and rain, today I decided to adopt my "just one more" attitude again, but this time I was taking advantage of just one more day of sunny and 70. I swapped Sam and her skinny tires out for Chili Uno and her fatter ones and found a place with trails dry enough for some riding.

Of course that didn't keep me from ending up laying in the creek.

Yes, somehow I managed to crash in that tiny little creek. Apparently just because a creek is skinny doesn't mean it's shallow. I attempted to ride confidently across and instead proceeded to flip over the handlebars and into the water.  My feet probably would've stayed drier if I'd just walked across.  The rest of me definitely would've. At least no one saw this act of gracefulness. Well, at least not anyone close enough for me to hear their laughter.

Hopefully tomorrow I can sneak in just one more before the rain hits!

Just A Lot More

Over a month ago, I wrote "Just One More." I was out there nearly every day in the snow, trying to get one last fix before it disappeared.


I probably could've chilled out a little back then, since it's currently dumping snow and Big E is out riding his fat bike. In April.

Of course, the snow has melted and come back numerous times since then. I've heard/seen thundersnow, dropped out of Ragnarok because I wasn't sure my feet were still there and moved out of my apartment because I could no longer get up the driveway.

Thankfully Big E has 4WD and a basement to store my stuff.

I've decided I should just accept the fact that my stuff will continue to end up in storage units, basements, the back of my van..... Perhaps I just wasn't meant to live in peace in a normal apartment or house for too long.  My old climbing buddies would say, "Once a groveller, always a groveller." At least Big E lets me sleep in the bed so I don't have to couch surf like back in the climbing days.

Of course, other things have changed since the old climbing bum days as well. For instance, somehow between Big E and I we own what appears to be 500 hangers. I have no idea how this happened. I mean, the fact that we probably own over 50 bottles of liquor between us makes sense, but 500 hangers for a couple of dirty bikers is completely baffling.

Of course, the fact that neither of us owns a dresser may have something to do with this.

We also have numerous jars of pickles. Big E keeps me amused at night by proving that the ones with the 2010 expiration date are still good.

I've learned to check all expiration dates before I eat anything in his house. I think there might be some canned goods older than me. At least we won't go hungry, since we currently have two refrigerators full of food.

We probably won't go sober long either by the looks of the liquor closet.....