rain/sun

up in philly again this weekend and so i hit the saturday road ride from the art museam. turned out to be a longer ride than i expected. as we were leaving, the group took a right and started heading out along west river drive on the other side of the river instead of up the way the ride had started for the last few weeks. it looked like a few people were going the 'normal' way, but i followed the people i remembered.

the ride ended up being around 60 miles at a more casual pace than i was expecting, so i was out for an hour longer than usual. it was a good ride... mostly crusing along, but there were a couple of sprints that i decided to go out for, and a little competition coming over the hill into manayunk near the end of the ride. the extra time didn't make much of a difference untill the last half hour as we were heading back into the city and the heavens opened and we ended up riding in some of the heaviest rain i've ever been out in on a bike.

as the rain tapered off and i rolled down south street, completely soaked, i got a call from heather to check that everything was ok. when i got back to the house a few minutes later i was greeted with dry towels and at that moment nothing could have been better. in spite of the rain, it was sunny enough to make my arms pretty red by the evening. i always seem to need that first time out to remind me that now it's time to put sunblock on for every ride.

mussels, steak frites, and a couple of belgian ales (1, 2, 3), at eulogy might be the perfect post ride meal...

sunday i made another try at wissahickon, this time with pat (formerly of city bikes, now living in philly) and one of his friends. we had a great ride, did a couple of loops on both sides of the creek, but according to pat we only scratched the surface of the park. lots of short rocky climbs that were difficult but rideable. the weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky and we finished the day with a little grilling in the back yard with a few of heather's friends and pat and his fiance.