91st ride - 8/18/2015

I left just past 8:00 a.m. today, and rode a good, long ride—out to Baker Rd. (Dexter), which I am able to do wholly on walks. (There is a good long walk, never used by anyone, that runs on the south side of Jackson Rd. It must have been installed for the use of us old folks!) This gave me a ride of 20.7 miles, which I did in a slow 2 hours and 45 minutes. Normally I'd have been closer to 2 and a half hours, but today I wasn't pushing at all for speed or time ... just puttering along, enjoying the summer sunshine (and thinking how it'll soon be gone).

When I got to my halfway point and turned around, I texted Michelle, John and Christy, and Marianne to let them know how I was doing. I got a couple of quick replies, and it felt nice to be connected in this way.

When I was riding my bike back in 2013, Doug advised me to get a bell so I could warn pedestrians I might approach from behind. I made sure to get one with the trike, too—but it didn't help me a great deal today! As I was about halfway through the second half of the ride, I came up behind a great, lumbering bear of a man, who I'm sure had to weigh at least 350 pounds, sauntering along down the middle of the sidewalk, swinging his arms—and unresponsive to my bell, as he was listening to music on headphones! The walk was narrow there, but I slowed almost to a stop, and made my way around him carefully and without incident.