How many entries in the course of this training blog have I titled some variation of “Cold and Windy”??  NOT TODAY.  Today’s weather was as perfect for a bicycle ride as the heavens can provide.

I had commitments for noon and later, so it was necessary to get the thing done by then.  Jesse again volunteered to go with me for company, so we hopped on around 9.  Since it’s been about 2 weeks since our Good Friday tornado, we thought it would be alright if we toured the damage to some of the neighborhoods on our bikes.  It didn’t feel so intrusive now, and there was not so much heavy equipment and volunteer force.

It was, however, very dramatic.  We went down Penny Lane, Henry Hill Rd., Sulphur Springs, Victoria Court or Circle, and then on to the Greenway at Thompson Lane.  I only took this one picture because it’s such a remarkable visual of what a tornado can do.  The damage was breathtaking, and one can’t help but marvel that there were no more deaths and injuries than there were.  It was also frightening to see how very close it came to the Walgreens where the girls were holed up in the freezer as it passed.  The Greenway was profoundly moving, because it’s the area with which Jesse and I are so familiar.  We’ve logged miles, particularly on that stretch and we were astonished at the power of the storm.

the other side of the house looked exactly like this side
the other side of the house looked exactly like this side

After surveying all that, we tried to do our “criterion loop” at the Battlefield; with all the damage to the neighborhoods, I had missed reading that the Battlefield had been hit as severely as it was.  We didn’t even attempt to do our 2-mile loop through there.

The next portion of our ride was much more pleasant.  We did the new 1.5 mile loop at the Gateway.  We’ve been doing this for months, watching the progress – I posted a picture of a backhoe in mud and muck a while back.  Today it appeared they were filling up the water feature, so I took a few views of that.

Gateway Water Feature
Gateway Water Feature
Another view
Another view
Looking west
Looking west

Weather was just beautiful…not to obsess, but it’s 15 days to the race…trying not to dwell on it.

No iPod, just plenty of sunshine and no wind!!

Thanks for reading…