Another Season Comes to an End

My biking season began this year in the middle of March with a four mile ride.  Short, but I figured after all winter without getting on a bike, we'd keep it short.  And Brombeere went with me, that was nice.  Some people hit the gym all winter and do the stationary bike thing, not me.   

It was a good day for a ride, albeit a little on the cool side.  But the snow was mostly gone, the roads were dry, and the wind was down.  An excellent day for a first ride of the season. I was on my recumbent, Brombeere was also on her recumbent, a brand new one.  That was another reason to keep it a short ride, it was her first time out on a recumbent and they do take some getting used to.  But she decided she liked it.  In fact, she decided she wasn't going to go back to her upright so she gave it away a few weeks later.  Anyway, we got out a couple of times and then it snowed and that was the end of biking during March.

The next time out was a month later, in the middle of April, another good ride.  

I was by myself this time so I went a little farther.  This ride was closer to my average.  Still a bit early in the year, still a bit cool, but still a nice time out on the bike.  My favorite trails are a little father away from home so it isn't until I go more than at least three or so miles that I get into my favorite trails to ride.  That's okay, though, I like being out on the bike.  

During April I got on some longer rides, including out to my most favorite areas, where I most like to ride.  My favorite ice cream place had also opened for the season by then so that was yet another good reason to get out.  Oddly enough, I managed to go by the ice cream place pretty regularly when I was out.

Then, in April, we went out of state for a few weeks, there was a new grandbaby we had to go meet, among other things we wanted to do.  On that trip we ranged pretty far.  In addition to the usual family we went to see, we also slipped down south, passed the Grand Canyon, to see Brombeere's sister.  That was a good trip but not much biking got done while we were gone.  It wasn't until near the end of May that I got out on my bike again.

All the rest of May, and through June, July, August, and September, whenever the weather was good, I was out on my bike.  Often Brombeere would go with but often I was out by myself.  We also got over to visit Blaubeere and ride with her and her kids. 

Erdbeere and her kids also came up and we got to go for a ride with them.

During August I took my longest ride of the summer, just over 29 miles.  It was along a state trail that ran through a lot of farm land.  I ride this trail pretty often and frequently see field irrigation systems going while on it.  This time it was right next to the trail.  These irrigation systems move through the field and this time it was sprinkling right across the trail.  I had to stop and wait a bit for it to turn away from the trail so I could get by without getting soaked.  Fun stuff.  But I made the ride out and back. It was a good ride.

This summer we also had something happen that has not happened since I began riding bikes again several years ago; we had a flat tire on Brombeere's bike.  But I got it fixed with no major issues and it didn't slow us down at all.  I like that we live where that doesn't happen a lot.  There was one other time a few years ago where Brombeere got a flat but we pumped it back up and it held fine, didn't have to do any repair work at all.  I figured she must have hit a berm just right to break the bead on her tire.

We had been planning another vacation in late September to go back and see some of our kids that live out west so we were out there when fall got going and the leaves started turning colors. But we still got to see some very nice colors while we were out there. That is my favorite time of year to be out on my bike.  

But even though the colors had hit their peak while we were gone, there were still plenty of leaves and color left when we got back.  So I was still able to get out and enjoy them, even if they were no longer at their prettiest.  It was still a good time to be out and about.

One of my goals this season was to at least match the most number of miles I'd gotten since I started riding bikes again; that was 460 miles.  I did that back in 2016.  A number of things conspired to keep me from matching that since then, including having my season end early when I was hit by a car a couple of years ago.  It took me the next couple of years to work my way back up from that.  Getting my recumbent also helped as it enables me to go farther without having my shoulders get so sore.  

This year I am happy to report that I not only matched by previous best, I also got over 500 miles, 557 miles, to be exact. This was my view view when I reached my 500th mile. That was a happy thing.  

Because I could go farther on a ride on my recumbent I had more rides over 20 miles this season than any previous year.  That enabled me to get so many miles for the season even though I didn't get out quite as often as some years in the past.  It all worked out well.

There was another ride I had been wanting to do all summer.  I had kind of estimated it out and thought it would end up being somewhere between 30 and 35 miles, that would have been my life time longest for me, father than I had ever ridden before, even longer than any rides I ever did when I was in Germany.  As the season was coming to a close, in early November, I finally worked up the courage to make this ride.  

It was more or less a big triangle, first to a park ...

... then to the river, and then down along the river and back home. It also took me out of town a ways, to areas I had never been before on my bike, through some farm land, but also along some wooded lanes, most of this ride was along country roads. The only trails were as I was back in town, getting back toward home.  It was a fun ride, even if it wasn't quite as long as I had thought it would be.

As I was getting back into town and into areas more familiar to me, where I had ridden before, I began to realize the ride was not going to be as long as I had thought.  In the end, it ended up being only 27 miles; I didn't break 30 miles so my old record of 30.5 miles still stands.  Not a bad ride for me but certainly no record breaker.  That will have to wait until another year.

It was a good season, lots of time out on my bike, and lots of time out on the bikes with Brombeere.  I had hoped the season would extend farther into November but my last time out was November 1st and I think that is where the season is going to end.  It's been too cold, windy and/or rainy since then.  But all in all, it was a good season for biking.