I was about to take a quick rinse-off shower before I started watching the movie because I could smell smoke from the grill on me from cooking my sausage. I was about ready to hop in when I thought I am going to take a shower anyway, I should go for a bike ride!

Last year we were walking through Blain's Farm and Fleet and I was intrigued with a rack of ANSI high visibility safety green t-shirts they had on sale. I tossed one in our cart not really having an idea of what I was going to use it for, but just thought it was cool. Well it is the perfect thing to wear for nighttime riding.

I put the safety green t-shirt on, tossed my cell phone, wallet, garage door opener, and keys in the trunk, turned on my LED headlight (thanks Sunny) and my red LED taillight, and started riding.

So far every bike ride we have taken we have headed to the east. The city has been working on a nice bike trail that leads into our downtown. Our closest point to the trail is about a mile west, so I thought I would go check it out.

After about a mile, and just about to the trail, I heard my cell phone ringing. I quickly stopped and unzipped the trunk and answered it. It was Sheri. So I dismounted, turned off my lights and took off my helmet and talked to her for a few minutes.

I was stopped in front of a 7-Eleven with a lot of traffic and across the street from some apartments. A group of four or five punks in black t-shirts was crossing the street towards the 7-Eleven. They were being jerks and just walked in front of on-coming cars and would yell and look tough when a car honked their horn. I thought great, here I am in a nice safety green t-shirt with my nice safe helmet on my nice brand new bike talking on my nice cell phone. I was directly in the path between them and 7-Eleven. They cut a wide path around me and didn't even make eye contact. I forgot that I look like a mean m*&%$# ^%@#!r with my shaved head! How fun is that?

After the call ended I mounted back up and continued on to the trail. When I got to the trail there were several rows of city signs saying the trail was closed. I rode past the signs about 50 feet and everything looked OK, but I figured with my luck a police cruiser would see me and give me a ticket or something, so I turned around and headed home.

Going back is mostly uphill, but it is very slight so it wasn't too bad. A headwind kicked up as I started back and I thought I was going to have a painful ride back, but it only lasted for a minute.

I rode 2.6 miles at an average speed of 8.7 mph, and my top speed was 20.5 mph. We had a little rain again before I left so the roads were wet, and a little spray kicked up and got my brakes wet. The first time I applied them I was a little startled because they made a loud squeaking sound and grabbed a bit. After that I just lightly applied my brakes to dry them off when I knew I had a stop to make.

Now I am going to take a shower, pour myself a tall cool glass of fresh iced tea, and settle in to watch Kinsey.