~ nice fall weekend ~
I had a three day weekend recently, in which I was able to fully enjoy the pleasant fall weather. Amazingly, Josh was also able to have a three day weekend, so it proved to be an all Joshifern all of the time three days. Which was quite lovely.
On Friday, we ended up riding our cruiser bicycles about 25 miles to and from Eagle. I must say, 25 miles on a cruiser is something else. We took the neighborhoods as much as we could, winding our way along the northern side, at the base of the foothills. And speaking of those foothills neighborhoods, we had a couple of good grunts uphill which afforded us some pretty fun downhills...on a cruiser! We also rode several miles along a canal road which was very similar to, say, a beginner level mountain biking trail. I was elated that we were mountain biking on our cruisers. A very unique and interesting experience. That photo above is us on the canal road (I've got a bit of helmet hair going on). We had to take a bit of a detour through the new Veteran's Cemetary in order to relieve ourselves and then, by the time that we arrived in Eagle, we were both starving and experiencing a low-blood sugar state. We went to the Rembrandt's cafe and shared a weird (but tastey...in a weird way) protein-heavy egg and pasta pie with ham and mushrooms. I also enjoyed an eclair, you know, for the blood sugar. We were planning on spending the whole evening in Eagle which sounded like great fun, but we quickly realized that the setting of the sun would mean a sharp decrease in the temperature, and Josh (due to having spontaneously donated his coat earlier in the day) did not have a coat. So we enjoyed a bit of a walk around the downtown area and then hopped back on our cruisers for the return journey. We were cruiser-mountain biking back along the canal road a little before dusk and it was very very cool. It was dark by the time we made our way into the North End neighborhoods.
We had another fantastic bike ride two days later, on Sunday. I must say, weatherpersons sure can be incorrect about their weather predictions. Saturday, as predicted, was rainy, cold, and lame. Sunday, in full contradiction to the prediction, was glorious. Yes, it was a bit on the chilly side, but it was sunny and beautiful. In the early afternoon, Josh and I decided to embrace the chilly gloriousness and we went on a road bicycle ride. I am not yet fully equipped with proper cold-weather cycling gear, so my fashionable knitted knee high wool socks may have appeared a bit silly with my spandex knee warmers and shorts. But hey, I was plenty warm! I was actually a bit too warm on the upper part of my person, as I was wearing a base layer, a long sleeve jersey, AND my wind breaker. Dressing for chilly weater cycling, I have found to be challenging. As per the obvious, one is always colder at the beginning of one's ride than after one warms up from the physical exertion. And since I am an extreme coldy-pants, I tend to over-do-it with regards to layers. Not that I am complaining, because I would much prefer to be on the a-bit-too-warm side than the a-bit-too-cold side.