In Which a Windy Journey Adds Up to 25 Miles

Our meeting place. Bottle at far left is mine.

I had not been in the Hotel Kirkwood before, and it looked very nice. The Guinness was cold, the appetizers tasty and the conversation interesting—all that one could ask of the final department meeting of the year.

It’s been the tradition of the academic department that I am a member of to meet off campus for our final session of the year. This year’s session was at the Hotel Kirkwood, just south of the main Kirkwood Community College campus.

The meeting was to start around 3:45. I left Mount Mercy at about 2:50. I should have left a bit earlier---it was after 4 when I got there. I took the Bowling Street Trail—not my favorite route, but a bit shorter than going into the Kirkwood campus from the east.

The day was cloudy and cool. I have not worn my jacket in recent weeks, but did today. A strong west wind was biting at me, and the route to Kirkwood proved to be more uphill than I expected.

We had a storm roll through on Mother's Day. I was hoping to catch a rainbow as the sun went down, but the rain moved too quickly and I didn't see one. Oh well, sky was interesting (and before you point it out, yes I know, if there was a rainbow it would be opposite the sun, not towards it).

But, it’s bike to work week, and it would have damaged my pride to do anything but cycle to the department meeting.

Actually, it wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t that windy. The biggest problem was that there was some sort of utility truck parked right on the trail—for some reason, utility workers don’t seem to worry much about blocking bike trails. A rider headed north as I was headed south mumbled something about “assholes” as I passed him—and I don’t think the reference was to me.

Well, bike to work week started with a few miles. I rode 25 today. Since eight of those are my regular ride, I supposed that meant the ride to the Hotel Kirkwood was about 8 ½ miles (17 plus eight being 25).

Two more damp Mother's Day photos from the fruitless hunt for a rainbow. Well, not fruitless--the wet world was still a pretty place.

The ride back was easier. Of course, some appetizers and Guinness probably just made me feel more like biking, anyway. I have some new lights, and they sparkled quite impressively in the cloudy late afternoon dim light, I think.

Day one of biking week: 25 miles. We’ll see what mileage totals I manage to reach the rest of this busy finals week.

Tree on central campus at MMU lost a substantial limb in the Mother's Day thunderstorm. Luckily no students nor biking professors was in the way when it came down.