Short FD Ride

On this Father's Day I thought about an afternoon ride at the Knob but the incoming weather changed my mind.  I headed out for a short road ride instead.

I was not sure which way to head and

the dummy in the background was no help.

At first I was going to stick close to home, thinking rain was eminent.  Somewhere along the way I pulled a u-turn to extend the ride while thinking "it's not raining yet, may as well ride further."  I ended up riding down Prairie Lane road which is flat as a board but the scenery is somewhat unique.  About the time I got back on my short loop route it started raining.  Oh well, the rain felt pretty good on this sweaty, humid day.

Some of the lowlands intersected by Prairie Lane.

Dodged the weather at the Knob

It seems everyone else head back to work after the Easter weekend, but I seized the opportunity to extend the weekend another day.  This morning we went for a family hike at Wooster Memorial beneath sunny skies.  The Trillium were on display.

After lunch I decided to head to the Knob.  Driving north the clouds on the horizon had me wondering if I should call KT and ask for a lookup on the weather forecast and radar status.  I declined to do so and pulled into the parking lot, the only car there on a Monday afternoon.

Two days ago I got in a lap and found the rearranged beginning a bit of a surprise.  Ryan had told me about it, but it took me a little bit of head turning to understand what had been done.  I think I liked it better before but I'm sure the old route will be forgotten before long.

The overpass is now in play.

A couple days ago I felt really good and thought I was handling the bike well.  It seems I had a slower start today but I got the feel back.  I'm still liking the new tire on the rear, though I did had one chain drop with the new Jump Stop today.

They don't call it Junk Hill for nothin'.

I came out of the woods into the Furnace and was greeted by some threatening skies.  Back to the car?  No, I'll ride until it rains.  I finished out the lap dry.  Try for another?  Oh yeah.  The second time around I was feeling good and the view up the Furnace was starkly calmer.  Nice day for a ride.

Lap 1... not looking good.

 Lap 2... no worries.

On the way home I called KT.  "How wet are you?" was her first question.  Apparently there was a torrential downpour or two at home.  She had looked at the radar map and was certain I was drenched.  Thankfully not!  At least not this time.

Sunny Skies... for a couple days

Wow, there has been a long stretch of rainy days of late.  I guess it didn't bother me too much as I was under the weather myself with a mild cold for the past week.

Typical scene this April.

 Finally the weather broke yesterday and I was able to mow the yard with plans of riding today.  Nothing serious for today, just an easy spin to make sure my cold was in remission.  It was nice to see blue skies and everyone else out mowing.

Now this is more like it.

Unfortunately the forecast is back to rain and scattered storms for the near future.  Oh well, it makes the nice days better appreciated.

Squeezed in a (Mostly Dry) Ride

With a wedding to attend this afternoon and rain in the forecast I didn't think a ride would be part of today.  Late morning Daniel and I went to the basement so I could clean the Litespeed, which was still dirty from the rain we encountered on the club ride Wednesday night, and Daniel could clean his trike.  Of course 45 seconds after our cleaning session began Daniel was ready for another source of entertainment.  I hurried to finish my cleaning and in the process decided I wanted to ride my freshly cleaned bike.

Despite the massive presence of green on the radar I found a gap between blobs on the map.  After a quick lunch I rolled out for a short ride.  The plan was to ride out to Flickinger Hill and do a climb or two before coming back.  On the way out the skies were cloudy but just at the radar picture promised, dry.

Down, up, down, up, down, up on Fry Road.

After a second climb up Flickinger I decided to start the ride back home.  The skies were not terribly threatening but I remembered how small the window of non-rain was on the radar map.  After pushing it up Silver Road I was met by a very light rain that would accompany me the rest of the way home.  It was rather refreshing giving the high humidity of the day.

This was the radar image moments after I

arrived home, just south of Wooster.

About five minutes after arriving home the rain really began to come down.  I guess this has been the story of the past two weeks, intermittent strong showers.  Watching out the back door and seeing the rain soak the landscape, I was glad my ride brought me home without delay!

A not so uncommon scene these past couple weeks.