90th ride

I was absolutely delighted when my friend Kahle Strickland contacted Dave Palmer and me yesterday and asked if we wanted to ride with him this morning. We met at Gallup Park at 6:45 a.m. and rode a route that Dave often rides, being in his part of town. I had hoped to do more with Kahle after we completed the loop—he pushed on, but I was spent after a good workout of 16.9 miles (1 hour 38 minutes) on a ride that included a fair number of hills and several stretches of dirt/gravel roads, which, though I am not used to riding on, I was able to handle fine. This was a great way to start the holiday (which would have been my Dad's 106th birthday—he always amused me by relating how impressed he was by all the fireworks and parades in his honor when he was a boy)—and it was made even better when I first hopped on the scale, as I do each morning, and found that I weighed the least of any day since the summer of 2009.

It was very clear to me that both Kahle and Dave could easily outride me both on the numerous uphills and in terms of overall pace. However, they very kindly made allowance for my elderly weakness, and never evidenced one word or gesture of complaint. Altogether, for me, they were very pleasant riding companions—but I'm not entirely convinced they'd say the same about the slow guy bringing up the rear! And during the ride, I got some good mental exercise, too, by setting myself the task of memorizing our route, on roads I did not know, so that I could map it out when I got home.