Finally spring...sort of...

Actually my first day out on an actual outdoors road was yesterday. My seven year old grandson was visiting and brought his bike and wanted to ride with Papa. It was about 40 degrees and the wind was somewhere in the 20 mph range but the chance to ride bikes with a grandson is not something one turns away from. So out we went, Timmy on his little one-speed and me on my all-terrain cross trainer. He is flying just about as fast as his little legs (but unlimited energy) will carry him while I am following keeping an eye out for errant vehicles and some of our senior neighbors who might have been so rash as to use the same sidewalk that Timmy was maneuvering. We did about 5 miles which Timmy quickly translated into 10 and, of course, made a point of telling his mom that he was pretty sure he could beat Papa. In the final analysis perhaps the most fun riding partner I could find...
Today started with sun and cold but by 10 o'clock or so it had warmed up to maybe 42 with little or no wind. Time to go and see what I could do after a very long layoff....First lesson of the day: an indoor bike does not in any way resemble a real road. I have been pretty religious about hitting the gym 3/4 days a week but real pavement, real wind and real hills are entirely different from pedaling in front of a TV blaring CNN news. But I am not complaining...it has been since December that I have been out and it was a treat to get out and be moving again. Within half an hour the sun went behind cloud cover and the little breeze started acting like a bit of a northwind but no matter. I waved to passing joggers, other cyclists and even a couple guys on Harleys. I saw one robin who apparently didn't get the memo that more snow could come tonight and tomorrow and the photo I took above is the one example I saw all day of spring flowers - mostly it was simply a bit of green trying to poke above the ground. And oh yeah...44 miles at 15.6 pretty good for this year's inaugural ride.