Spring bicycles

The other day we rode our bikes into town and parked them in front of the cafe to have breakfast with friends. The pear tree was blooming and it looked so pretty that I took a photo.

B&B....Breakfast and Bikes

B. and I have our favorite little ritual... having breakfast in town every Saturday and Sunday morning. We either walk the half mile down into town or bike there, and we like having breakfast at Ralph's Pretty Good Cafe. Afterwards, we usually either go for a few miles' walk or a couple hours' bike ride. Here is a lovely picture showing a typical breakfast selection at Ralph's.
Yesterday we went for a 20 mile/two hour bike ride after breakfast- it was a beautiful sunny day and we started out at 40F degrees and ended up at 55F. It was good.

A good ride

YAY!!! Our first significant ride of the year. About 40F and partly sunny and dry enough roads.
B. and I rode 20 miles...a great reasonable warm-up start to the year. I am out of shape, and the 20 miles today felt more like 30 miles felt to me last Fall. It's my respiratory stamina that's gotten out of shape, but happily my leg muscles seem just fine still from last year. Good ol' quads.

It felt so good to be riding my bike in the sun. Saw and heard a pair of bluebirds, a caterpiller crossing the road, big flocks of redwing blackbirds coming back from their winter down south and making a huge racket...
Ponds are still frozen over, snow piles still hanging on here and there.

Then I actually cleaned my bike when we got home. A good start to prepare for Spring.
I feel tired, a little sore, and all stretched out but in a good way.

Bridge Trolls

Today was about 30F and sunny, and we rode our bikes 12 miles on a nice route with easy rolling hills (boy am i out of shape) and over a back road with a closed/condemned bridge going over RR tracks...This photo was from when the bridge was still open to traffic. It's been closed since 2007, but horseback riders (obviously) go over it all the time, so a couple of lightweight bikers should be ok. Since the road is blocked there, the highway dept has not been maintaining or cleaning the road for over a year now, and that section has become a mini-wilderness, with trees down, rocks, leaves, ice, and horsepoop everywhere. Sort of fun to pick our way through the Wild Frontier section of road. We crossed paths with two friendly teenage boys on their bikes going the other way, and we cautioned each other about ice up ahead.

Someone long ago dumped a pair of 3 foot tall plastic xmas lawn figures there in the woods near the bridge. A santa and a snowman. People keep standing them up one at each road block on either side of the little closed bridge, like sentries, surreal plastic bridge trolls. When they fall over in the wind sand roll into the woods again someone always puts them back at their posts.

Valentine's Day

We wanted to go bike riding today on Valentine's day, but at 25F degrees it turned out to be too cold.

Instead we walked down into town to have our usual weekend breakfast at Ralph's Pretty Good Cafe.