missed telling about the good stuff

That 1st week off, we rode a bunch. Started with 44 in the rain around here, then drove to Land Between the Lakes where we started at the middle welcome center, rode north 10 then went to Dover for lunch. 78 miles when we were done. Didn't know if we'd make dinner reservations in Nashville by 6 but we got there in time. Sweet upgrade in the hotel to the top floor corner penthouse was nice, since there was a college kids book selling rewards banquet going on that all the kids were busy partying on all the floors except the private ones! Next day was forecast for rain so we started as early as we could on the Natchez Trace. At 25 miles in we'd been in heavy rain for a while, it was 50, so we were thinking about turning around. I had a little problem with my pit zips, like i couldn't find the stupid zipper pull with 2 pairs of gloves on and numb fingers, ended up drifting towards the center when I had to look down with my rain covered glasses, then wham, crashed at 25 mph when i touched the center line. Stupid and totally my fault, but the ride back was miserable. Got pretty cold by now, so that I was shaking so badly I didn't know if I could hold myself on the bike. The temp had dropped so we were both shivering pretty good. Took a 1/2 hour to change clothes in the car with the heater on max. Lunch at Loveless was nice. The rest of the week off, we took a day off, then 45, 65, hill repeats and it rained us out some. Still, even the ride back sore, bleeding, shivering; it was better than work!

extra vavcation leads to extra biking

The way it worked out with my work scheldule, we didn't make any requests for weeks off so we ended up getting all my time off in a short period in Jan/Feb. Off a week, on a week, off, on, off.
We're in the 2nd off week so we riding every day. We did ride in sleet Monday, but it was light, didn't stick to the ground so it was much better than rain. Today it's 33 degrees, cloudy winds light so we'll do our 77 long way to Old Appleton for pie.

who's doing this weather?

Now it's almost 50 degrees with no wind, so finally after the long 4 days of being on call for New Year's I'm getting a good ride in. Saw 7 other riders out so it must be nice.