2021 mileage: 1997.2
Spring officially arrived at 5:37 a.m. yesterday, so today was the first full day of spring, and its weather was appropriately glorious! When I began my ride at 12:30, it was 59° and brightly sunny, and the temperature warmed to 63° during my ride.
Accordingly, I wanted to ride my 30+ mile round trip to Matthei Botanical Gardens for the first time in 4 months (since November 20). But my right knee remains tender, as it has been in recent days, and was soon screaming to me that carrying out this plan would not be prudent, so I cut my ride down and only went to the west end of Saline and back. At that, I had to take it pretty easy, and ride slower than I like; it was also shorter than I expected. I thought I remembered that ride being 20 miles, but it measured out at 16.5, which I rode in 2:09. I hated the fact that it left me just shy of 2000 miles for the year, but that should be easy to attain tomorrow.
A couple of miles into the ride, I had just made my decision to shorten my plans, when I was delighted to hear a car honk gently and then pull to a stop, with the driver hopping out. I should have recognized the car immediately, before even seeing the driver, as it was my dear daughter Christy, but I was caught off guard seeing her near us, as she lives about 11 miles away. After explaining why she was in the area, she said, "What caught my eye was your tornado!" This is what we call my spinner flag on the back of the trike—a few years ago, when he was quite small, we asked her son (my grandson) Danny what he thought it looked like, and with a smile, he said, "A TORNADO!"
Finally, on the second half of the ride, shortly after I had turned around and was heading back into Saline, I encountered a friendly grandmotherly type on the sidewalk. She looked to be well into her eighties, and was walking slowly, with a cane. Seeing me approaching her on the sidewalk, she pulled over and waited for me to pass, which I did slowly. As I made my way by her, her face crinkled into a big, friendly smile, and she pointed her cane at me and said, "That thing's a pretty nice way to get around!"
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