In Which Jet Lag Pleasantly Combines with Sunrise

6:30 a.m. Tuesday--shortly after leaving home. Morning sky at Rockwell-Collins pond on C Avenue.

I thought I was late Tuesday and was a little anxious as I got Francis out of the garage.

Maybe the inky darkness should have been more of a hint. My body clock is still on UK time, and far from being late, I was pretty super early—as in, leaving home around 6:30 a.m even if my body thought it was early afternoon.

With the time change, it’s just starting to get light that early in the morning. Of course, I was running with lights on. It was still, cool and very pretty.

I am not typically a morning person, although on RAGBRAI I usually rise at the crack of dawn. I guess it’s a matter of the situation—in my family, I have a reputation, deserved, for being among the first children awake on Christmas Day to see what Santa brought (and I’m not talking about when I was a kid—I mean now).

But anyway, other than being the first full day back in the U.S.A. and the first day of class after spring break, there wasn’t anything special about Tuesday that would have me biking at 6:30 a.m.

I don’t plan to make dawn biking much of a habit. But the world was a pretty place at that time—theyroyal blue sky reflected in the pond at Rockwell-Collins, the buildings of MMU batched in pinks and yellows.

Two views of the Tuesday morning light--U Center on Rohde Plaza bathed in pink, above, and, below, looking from Warde Hall bike rack towards the Battleship Donelly, turned golden by the rising sun.

Today, Wednesday, I wasn’t quite so crazily early, so I didn’t see the dawn’s light. But there were daffodils in bloom at the end of the ride, so I guess the biking morning was special today, too.

And she is off ... 6-year-old on bike sans stabilizers.

I’m did a lot of walking in the UK, and my knees seemed to have benefited. While there, I observed a 6-year-old granddaughter taking off confidently on her sister’s bike—the one they had removed the “stabilizers” from because it’s smaller and little legs can reach the ground better.

That was fun to see. It was fun to be in a country where biking is more common—racks in downtown Norwich are filled with the vehicles of commuters and shoppers.

But I am glad to be back home. The sky is bigger here—houses in town are not so close, so on a dark early Tuesday, you can really enjoy the cool expanse of blues and pinks as the new day begins. Best enjoyed, of course, on a bicycle.

I was a bit later leaving Wednesday morning, and the morning was cloudy and grey. I hope I beat the rain home tonight. Anyway, at least on Wednesday, I noticed this daffodil in bloom near the bike rack at MMU.