Iowa Blatherskite

You just gotta love Iowa. The temperature at 6:30 am today was the same as the temperature on Monday at 3:30 pm. From March to June in just five days.

Now, since it's warmed up, I kept a promise to Mary that I'd made a long time ago: on the first really nice day we'd ride bikes to school. It was cloudy and slightly muggy, but that was no problem. It's only about one mile to school and if you stick to the sidewalks and residential streets you'll avoid most of the traffic. Mary did a great job of balancing, avoiding sidewalk obstacles, and of stopping at main intersections. It took us about 15 minutes to get to school, and we had fun.

However, riding back home after leaving Mary at school presented some difficulty. The school is to the north and west of our house, so we had a tail wind all the way there. Coming home I had a headwind, plus a couple of steep uphills, and my knees felt it. I did shift to relieve some of the pressure on my knees, but I felt it just the same.

I really like my bike, though. It's a 15 year old Trek street/trail hybrid, and it's perfect for riding around town. Riding through Atkins takes me back to when I was a kid, riding around Maysville. I wish I was that young again, and I'd feel that young if it wasn't for my knees. And my hips. And my butt. And my grey hair. And my.............