It's Dark!

I took last week off and cycled somewhere every day except for Thanksgiving and the Friday after. Some days I just went for a ride by myself. While these were enjoyable and I felt like I was getting away with something since I was riding while everybody else was working, it's really more fun to ride with someone else.

Take for example last Tuesday's night ride with the crew. We met at a parking lot behind some office complex which would make a good set for a sci fi movie. There was a good crowd going and I assumed we were just going to ride out to Tom Brown and take a couple of laps in the dark, which had me a little nervous anyway since I had never ridden there with lights. We rolled out on Fern and I immediately took a wrong turn and ended up in the back yard of some type of construction company. I bushwhacked back toward the railroad tracks, found the trail, and caught the group at the road crossing. On a whim I had mounted a little red light that I had won at San Felasco to my seat post that afternoon and as we turned onto the busy road I was glad I had it flashing at all the cars piling up behind me. I avoid riding on the road if I can and I have never ridden on the road at night and certainly not in Tallahassee and definitely not in rush hour traffic!

We weaved through neighborhoods, back yards, driveways, and gravel roads. BW was in front of me as we rolled down hill into a cul de sac. I watched as he hopped the curve then disappeared. I found him at the bottom of a concrete ditch which I had no idea was there. If he hadn't been where I could see him I'd have gone into it head first. Well maybe that's a little dramatic since I don't ride where I can't see and was slowing down but still it could have been ugly. He wasn't hurt but I would have screamed like a girl if I'd have ridden off in it.

Through woods, over trash piles, a wrong turn, barking dogs in back yards as we rode behind houses, I had no idea where we were until we came out at the Alford Greenway parking lot. I was thinking "I'm 54 years old, riding through these streets like I'm a kid late for dinner, what the heck was I thinking, where are we going?" But you know what? It was FUN! I did feel like a kid. I remember riding my Sting Ray bicycle home from Paul Huffstetler's house after dark through my old neighborhood in Jacksonville, trying to get home before my Mom got mad at me for being late. How cool is that?

The single track through the Greenway and TB wasn't as hard in the dark as I'd feared and we finished up at the sci fi parking lot after 1.5 hours of riding. It seemed like we had been riding for hours. As I listened to them talk about the ride I realized they had been riding this area for more than 15 years so to them it was just another night ride. But to me it was quite an adventure.