The Accidental Training Ride

Jon posted on Facebook that anything he cooks tastes great after a 50-mile training ride.

Have not done that distance yet, but I did some extra riding yesterday, partly by accident. The Mount Mercy University "Times" student newspaper staff planned an end-of-year part at Buffalo Wild Wings, which is in my neighborhood.

Not really my kind of place. I don't drink with students, so I couldn't have a beer, and it would taken a fair quantity of beer for me to enjoy this establishment. I don't like "loud," I'm not into sports and I prefer some salad with my meal. But, it was good to sit and shout-chat with the students for a while.

During the party, I got a text from Audrey that she and the grandkids were at a park. They were actually at Bever Park in Cedar Rapids, but for some reason--distracted, no doubt, by 1,000 decibels of background "music," I mis-read the name as Thomas Park, in Marion.

I got the text as I was leaving the Bar/Restaurant/Pit of flashing images and Hellish noise. I hopped on old blackie, headed over to the Boyson Road bike trail which leads to Thomas Park.

It was very crowded, but I didn't see our dull red Chevy minivan, so I texted Audrey and discovered by errors. So I simply rode the rest of the trail, including a new side trail that, so far, ends in the midst of nowhere. I'm not sure if this is the part that eventually might tie into the CENMAR Trail from Cedar Rapids, but right now it leads to a rough dead end.

Still, its was a fun ride. I knew it would be a good day, despite morning grey skies. The afternoon was the perfect, partly-cloudy, post rain, slightly warmish day that makes part of an Iowa spring great.

On the way to and from the trail, I climbed the Bowman Woods hill on my bike--good hill training. The tree in sunset is the "summit ash," luckily not removed yet as the city has taken out some ash trees in the neighborhood--the summit ash, on a side street of off Brentwood Drive is, as far as I can tell, the hightest point in my neck of the woods. I went by it on the way back home form the trail. The other photo I shot earlier Thursday, on Eastern Avenue, not far from MMU, just to show how pretty a day it was even on just a plain old street.

As I said, a nice day for a ride. Not time yet for a 50-mile one, but soon, Jon, soon.