Oh! The Places You'll Go!

Lately, when I think about getting on a bike I think of the Dr. Seuss book...Oh! The Places You'll Go! Today turned out to be a phenomenal day. They rain that was forecast never came and it remained sunny and in the low 70's (F) most of the day. I decided to ride a similar route to what I did last Saturday in the rain. What a difference a week makes. The gravel roads were dry and repairs have been made on all the areas that were damaged when the frost came out of the ground.

Grrrrrrrrrravel !

Riding this stuff can chew you up and spit you out and for the life of me I don't know how folks do it on cross bikes. I was happy to have a good amount of rubber under me today. Maybe a monster cross build would be good for gravel.

I love the farm country west of the the Twin Cities area. There are a lot of horse ranches with beautiful meadows and groves of trees. It can also be quite hilly in some spots.

The farm fields have really greened up quickly and more and more horses are in the meadows feeding on the new grasses that are coming up.

This one of my favorite photos from the day. These folks have a couple of really beautiful horses that are always visible from the road. They will usually come to fence line to check me out, but today they stayed in the field away from the road.

The day also turned out to be a day for "firsts". My first wipe out of the year was a rather innocuous affair. You know...the try to turn around real slowly, lose your momentum, can't remove the feet from the clips, slow motion roll over that is usually hilarious when you see someone else do it. First vicious farm dog attack. Fortunately I was going downhill and was faster. However, there was a brief moment when I thought I may lose my right calf and Achilles.
Finally, first sunburn of the year. I now have to add sun screen to the list.

This little stretch of gravel with a curvy uphill is one of my favorites and always fun to ride. The only problem is that it ends where it meets a highway.


Flowers are starting to bloom and the buds on the trees are beginning to open. Each passing day now brings more and more green and new growth.

After getting off the farm roads I got back onto the Luce Line and road it out to Watertown where I turned around and headed back east to the western suburbs of the Twin Cities.

Tomorrow...on the road bike early in the morn and then Mother's Day with Patti's family. I'll miss my mom tomorrow.