I went on a semi-random ride last night, with one goal: burn enough calories to justify my dinner. Sam’s Italian Restaurant pizza. It’s the good stuff, folks. Sure, I like the Detroit-style deep dish. Chicago style is to die for (though not literally, sheesh). I love me some Little Caesar’s or Hungry Howie’s… but Sam’s is the gourmet thin crust, zesty, sweet sauce, Italian pizza.

In fact, I’ve gotta stop writing about said pizza because I have 40 minutes till I can pick it up!

I had no goals for last night’s ride. No worries, no cares, just me and the road and excellent looking cornfields (this has got to be one of Michigan’s best years in a long time for farming, it’s amazing how good the crops look)…

It was a glorious evening for a bike ride… and because my bikes have been behaving so well, I decided to tinker with the Trek. I lowered the handlebar 5 mm. I didn’t like it much on day 1, but on day 3 was fantastic.  I’d assumed (correctly) that Chucker was working so it was a solo afternoon jaunt and I was feeling pretty good.  I could have just done my normal 20 miles and called it good but decided to keep following my front wheel (while avoiding busy roads – no sense tempting fate) until I’d had enough and wanted to take my toy home.

I ended up with 27 easy miles (17.5-mph pace or 28 kmh) on my perfectly set up Trek.  After the first day with the handlebar dropped, I’d almost considered raising it again before I left for my ride.  I’m glad I didn’t.  I just needed a few rides to get used to it.  And it helps that most of my winter gut is gone…

OH!  And dinner was fantastic.  I got my usual (pepperoni, bacon, red onion, mild (banana) peppers) but this time, because there are so many people at our meeting nowadays, I also picked up a straight-up pepperoni pizza.  One of the best I’d ever eaten.  That’ll be on the ticket again next week!