And the rain rain rain came down down down

Date: March 31
Mileage: 22
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 257
Year to date mileage: 706

Date: April 2
Mileage: 24
Ride type: Social
April mileage: 24
Year to date mileage: 730


This morning when I woke up it was raining. Not too hard, but quite steadily. I checked the online radar and it looked like the rain was just about to move out of the area. So I decided to make the best of it and go to the inaugural Hiawatha Cyclery group ride. I'm glad I did. I think there were 7 riders all told, but I might have missed somebody. Pretty good turnout for a cold and rainy Sunday morning in early April.

I'm not sure how far we rode, but it was an abbreviated route. We went from the shop down to Lake Nokomis and then to Nokomis Beach Coffee (I think) for a quick warm up. Coffee was drank, muffins eaten and the shit was shot. It was nice to put some faces with a few local bloggers and it was nice to meet everybody. By getting 90 percent of my riding mileage in by commuting I'm pretty isolated on the bike. Which is probably why I started the blog in the first place. But there's no substitute for getting out and riding with your fellow bike minded human beings. I'd been missing that, but I hadn't realized how much until today. I might have to make this a regular gig. You should too. We averaged about 10 miles an hour and rode two abreast so people could talk. Very low key and very friendly.

After coffee we headed back to the shop so Jim and Kevin could open the place up and do some business. A few folks hung around for while, but I think most everybody wanted to get home and into dry clothes. I did too. But I also wanted to get a few more miles in so I took the long way home. I rode north into Minnehaha Park and crossed the river on Ford Parkway. Then I followed East River Road to Shepard to 35E. While heading east on Shepard the wind was blowing straight at me and I was sort of regretting the decision to tack on the extra miles. Pedaling harder helped, but I was soaked. In Lilydale I met up with the Big River Regional Trail and then it was straight home.

When I got into the garage I had a hard time untying my shoes because my fingers were starting to go numb. I took a nice long, hot shower and put on some warm fuzzy clothes and ate. I think it will be an early bedtime tonight. I don't even want to talk about the fact that it stopped raining almost immediately after I got home.