104th ride

This morning, I did a good Saturday morning ride - not as long as when I like to do a round trip to Chelsea, but substantial anyway, going to Dexter and back (26.4 miles) in 2 hours 34 minutes (slightly faster than when I did the same ride on May 4). And it was with Michelle's acquiescence—since my fall near the end of my ride to Chelsea on June 22, she has asked me to forgo riding to Chelsea for now. But I asked her last night if I might ride to Dexter and back this morning. She declined to answer verbally, but just sort of waved the back of her hand at me as if to say, "Go ahead and do what you please," so I took that as a yes. As she seemed a bit troubled, I didn't think I should press her for clarification. And when I got to Dexter today, it was tempting to press on to Chelsea—but, not having cleared that, I reined in my ambition to wait for another day.

I left home at 6:15, and on the way out, just before 6:30, I was treated to a display of natural beauty. I was riding westward on Waters Rd., about halfway from Oak Valley to Wagner (onto which I turn), when, in the early morning stillness, I saw a female whitetail deer ("do[e], a deer, a female deer") just standing in the middle of the road, watching me approach. When I got to within about 100 yards, she turned and bounded off into the woods. I kept this image with me throughout the next two-plus hours of the ride.