The temp was a balmy 43° (6 C) as I was readying the Venge for a wonderful, sunny, Saturday morning ride. It had rained the night before, but the weather report was for sunshine and happy times.

I was going to ride the Trek, but I figured one more ride on the Venge – just in case I don’t get another opportunity this year. 43 isn’t too cold for the good bike…

I walked out the door with a couple of minutes to spare to damp pavement. The sun was already out, though, so I figured it’d be a matter if minutes before it dried up, so rather than head back in and air up the Trek, I decided to roll with the chick that brung me (that’s a riff on an old Arnold Palmer quote).

Oops.

The first five miles were spent dodging the rare rooster tail that popped up when someone rolled through a wetter chunk of the lane. Same with the next five. And the five after that. Hey, guess what the next five were like?

Nope, not the next five. For those, we had to dodge mud clumps left by farm tractors hopping from field to field… as well as rooster tails. Woohoo!

The ride in the sun sure was nice, though. The last sixteen were almost all tailwind and fun. It was too bad about my gnarly race bike, but whatever… it was already a mess. Nothing could be done about it, so I just rolled on with a smile on my face.

I’d failed to miss a lot of that aforementioned mud, though. The down tube and bottom bracket area were coated. It wasn’t all that big a deal in the end. Cleaning the bike up simply took some time.

A bit muddy, yes, but it was a wonderful morning on the bike. Today will hold a different story. The real cold hit last night – a month early.