January 25, 2025
El Rio
AFD #1
Warning: the first video is quite loud, and now that it’s cemented in there’s nothing to be done about it. You might turn down the volume on your device.
Today's outing is a joint bike ride with no planned stops along the way unless you count bathroom pit stops, which hardly seem worth noting. And the rules are pretty straight forward and intuitive for those: don't go into the wrong stall, don't lock partner into a rancid outhouse, don't drop your phone into the toilet.
So, just an old fashioned spoke song with two best friends biking down the road together. And I keep my promise and the Canon is in the drawer back home and the phone stays mostly in my pocket and takes only a few shots. As a result I keep with her the entire way in both directions and there’s not too much to show but the video.
So just a few words about what was unusual enough to warrant mentioning.
Fiest. We and a long queue of blocked cars get stopped by a train. It's an accursed eastbound one that takes forever to pass as it gradually slows to a crawl as it enters downtown. When it becomes obvious that it's going to come to a full stop and seal off Granada we make a u-turn and head north for the next freeway crossing at Speedway, joining other cars that one by one peel out of the queue and do the same.
Our destination today is uncertain when we set out but it might be to the first restroom north of Ina Road, a goal that would give me my first thirty miler of the winter. Rachael's arthritic right foot is bothering her when we start out though so we just plan to turn back when the time comes. It could be 10 miles total, it could be 20. As we go though I keep track of the round trip total we’ve attained, but the foot is feeling better as we ride and so we just keep heating downriver.
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We reach the Ina Road underpass and the pit stop just beyond it, our original goal for the day,where it’s my turn to whiz in. But then she just keeps going and finally we stop at the lake at El Rio, my personal stretch goal I’ve been working towards, and where I stop to check out the birds (and there are few today because it has gotten very windy) while she continues on to the end of the trail by Marana, adding another four miles to her total.
I’ll have to check, but it’s probably been nearly a year since Rachael has biked a forty miler. So that seems worth recognizing.
Rachael shows up again after about twenty minutes, and we head for home. It’s nearly 20 miles away, but not much work will be required because of this big tailwind that’s developed over the last half hour.
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And one other thing to take note of. I’m sitting beside the trail waiting for Rachael to return from her own break when two bikes approach and one calls out “Scott, I assume”. It’s Kelly’s friend Jan that we had lunch with two days back, on a tandem with her partner for the long haul, Kurt. Amazing. I of course snap some photos, and when Rachael returns I even capture a video of the three of them starting out because the GoPro battery died some ways back.
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6 days ago
And was there something else newsworthy to report? I was thinking so, but it escapes me now. So let’s stop here.
Oh, wait! I remember now! I think today must be the the first Adversity Free Day since we left Spain. Thank you, indoor and outdoor scripts! I think this is going to work for us. Enjoy the video, see you tomorrow.
Sound track: Dragonfly, by Yasmin Williams
Oh, wait. I’m a liar. I forgot there was one other business stop tacked on the end of the outing: dinner at Bacio’s. Well, technically it’s a second outing because we went home, dropped off the bikes and change clothes. But it’s the same day, and this outing was adversity-free also so the day overall is still clean.
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6 days ago
6 days ago
Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 282 miles (454 km)
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