Today was the "Ride for Recovery" fundraiser for Dawn Farm in Ypsilanti. They offer several different lengths of ride from which you can choose, and I did the 25-mile ride. I had ridden the same event back in 2013 (when I was still on a regular bike), and today's conditions were better, but only marginally. In 2013, we rode in rain for much of the ride; today, though we experienced thunderstorms during the night, and they were projected to return this afternoon, we dodged the rain for most of today's ride (it only arrived during the last 3 miles or so, quite lightly). It was, though, colder today, at 46°. Despite this, I was very comfortable riding in shorts; but I was awfully glad to have a coat on!
I had an enjoyable, though brief, visit with my friend Bob Thompson before the race, and after he let me take his picture, he got one of me on my camera.
Just after this, the day's only (minor) calamity occurred. I had thought ahead to prepare a brief note of explanation/introduction, and had occasion to show it to 4 people in the half hour before the ride. But right after talking with Bob, A fellow with a very nice camera came up, and was wowed by my trike, and asked if he could take my picture with it. I assented to this, but first pulled out my note and showed it to him. After he read it, though, I forgot to get it back, and we were soon pedaling down the road and I never saw him again, so I had to negotiate the rest of the day without it. But that was no big deal at all.
Several months ago, I got new spinners (or "tornadoes" as my Grandson Danny calls them) for the back of my trike, as shown below. But I have become accustomed to riding with only one, rather than both—they too frequently got tangled up in one another. Today it drew many admiring comments from fellow riders—those I heard included, "Your spinner is beautiful!", or "Mesmerizing!", or "Very patriotic!"
Though the ride I had chosen was nominally 25 miles, they had measured it at an actual length of 27.22. But, due to my missing a couple of turns, I tacked on a little bit of extra mileage, to cover 28.26 miles in 2:58, and bump me over 800 miles for the year.
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