The nice weather is here, a new riding jersey arrived yesterday, and it’s time to hit the bike paths and lanes here in Visalia. My wheels are a 1977 Schwinn Varsity 10-speed, which I bought new from Wilson’s Cyclery here in Visalia sometime in early- or mid- 1978. I was 20 years old, and the bike was the very first thing I ever bought on credit.

The past few days have seen a couple of 12 mile rides around town, including one yesterday when I was almost ran over by a guy doing a ‘California stop’ at an intersection. I yelled, he jammed on the brakes, and disaster was averted by a close margin. He was chagrined, as he looked right past me to check for oncoming traffic, but did not see me. After my initial “HEY!”, neither of us yelled at the other, and he apologized as he passed me after I cleared the intersection.

Today’s ride was a short 6.4 miles, riding the St. John’s River Park path from Ben Maddox Way to Cutler Park and back.

I do have one serious problem, however.

I’m a night owl, and don’t do mornings. In a few short weeks, however, it’s going to be very warm in the afternoons when I usually take my rides. I don’t know if I can stand to get up early to get some riding in before it gets too hot. We’ll see what happens.

{insert bike bell chime here}