Friday Feedbag: A Memorial Day Ride

The mrs. and I took a ride on Memorial Day. It was a good day for a ride. That sounds lame, I know, after all when is an extra day off during the week not a good day for a ride. We don't generally need any other prompting. Neither were we the only ones, and though riders of two wheels may have tapered off some the further down the path we rode, I don't believe I have ever seen so many riders of four hoofs in the Whittier Narrows area, maybe because there was some kind of rodeo going on at the sports arena across the river. At some point the ride got a little too leisurely and I had to start doing intervals; last time we did this ride - which we call the dam to dam ride, although it starts above the Santa Fe Dam and goes beyond the Whittier Narrows Dam - the pace being set by the mrs. was much livelier. I wondered what the difference could be and blamed it on the giant yellow-green sail she was wearing on her back. "Five miles per hour" I would call out, "if you just took that thing off you could gain an extra five miles per hour." She didn't take those encouraging words to heart, only taking it off for the ride back up river because the air temperature had warmed up by then. Anyway, all in all it was a good day for a ride. A lot to do this weekend, a lot more good riding to be had - locally the Paper Route Ride will be raising funds for Samantha and Jenna, and their Olympic aspirations. I will not have time for the ride, but plan to be there for the start, contributing my donation, and taking photos of the pre-ride gathering. Then it will be off for an evening at the Encino Velodrome for the Forsyth Cup and more photo-taking. If you are looking for something else to do on Saturday don't forget it is the first of the month, and that means the Ride Around Pomona - this months theme is "In Search of Purple Houses, Peacocks, and Other Weird House Ornaments."

Whatever you end up doing, make a good weekend of it.