50's and Lovin' It!

So it's been a long 6 weeks since I last wrote about riding.  As my previous post says the snow kind of kept me indoors and off the road.  There were a few times that I was able to get out but just as soon as I started we got another batch of crappy weather.  Not that I mind winter weather, but I'm not real fond of riding on ice, roads narrowed by temporary banks of snow, and loose salt.
Over the 6 weeks I rode a total of 7 times!  Not a whole lot when considering I almost rode that much in a normal week.  Oh well, I guess I could have not gotten out at all and been back to square one with a sore posterior and weak legs after my first ride out.  Of course I don't really remember any of the rides except for one that I took into New Bloomfield, and the past three.
About a week after the back to back snow storms the roads were clear enough for me to get back out and I decided to ride into New Bloomfield.  I wanted to take a spin around town and remember my childhood.  It was a lot of fun and it was cool to hang out in the old stompin' grounds where my memories came rushing back - hanging out at the dam behind the cemetery with a clear view of the prison, playing at the play ground by the post office, and going through those awkward stages of teenhood in middle school.  It really made me long for my childhood again.  You never realize how great things are as a child until you're looking back.  My parents picked the perfect town and county to raise their kids in and I thank them for it.

The other three weren't as exciting.  The one ride came on my birthday.  I was actually really looking forward to it, even though I decided to do it about 2 hours before I did it.  My friends and girlfriend - Juan, Jenny, and Rebecca - were throwing me a birthday dinner after they got off work (they had an in-service day and I was off haha it was fantastic), so I decided - after spending the morning snowboarding - that I would ride down for dinner since Bec and I didn't both need to have two cars to drive home.  I figured it was a great opportunity to ride over 20 miles and have a mountain to climb.  However, about 7 miles in I went to take my knit cap off and was shocked to find I never put my helmet on!  With the feeling of my knit cap I never noticed that I hadn't put my helmet on and just took off with out thinking twice.  I was far enough away from home that I didn't want to turn around for it so I decided to keep going, but I will say it was the most cautious ride I've ever ridden.  I constantly looked in my mirror for vehicles passing too close and looked farther ahead for any kind of obstacles to avoid.  Needless to say I arrived at Juan's house safe and unscathed and enjoyed my dinner very much.
The other two aren't really worth mentioning since they were just rides to get in miles.  However, there is one very interesting and exciting side note.... it was in the 60's for both rides!  I have been waiting for warmer weather for a very long two cold months.  The cold was really demoralizing and I was finding it hard to want to go out and ride, but now that the weather is getting warmer it's changed my whole outlook.  The best part is that the long-term weather forecast isn't showing a high below 50 degrees.  There's plenty of rain on the way, but I'm ok with that so long as the temperatures don't drop down below 40 again.
Well that's the short rough draft of an update from me.  Hopefully with warmer sunnier days on the way more miles will be logged, which means more posts.  Until then, feel free to fill your time with TV watching, internet surfing, and soda chugging contests - for the real go getter do all of them at once!

In the past 6 weeks 106 miles - 2655 miles to go.