Come Fly With Me

2019 Outdoor Season: Ride #36

The Route: Searching for sunflowers

The Miles: 21.0

The Time: 1:41

The Ave. Speed: 12.5 mph

The Weather:

Sunny, windy and warm

85 degrees

Wind, 15 mph

Season Total Miles: 774

I got a little lost today.

All of the sudden I look to my left there are some big planes parked over there.

Hey, that's the airport tower.

Somehow I ended up riding along the back side of Appleton International Airport today.

I blame the sunflowers.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

What an odd little ride this was, filled with challenges and mistakes.

My first mistake was to trust the weather forecast, which said that by about 2:00 in the afternoon showers and perhaps even storms would be moving in.

It's 2:00 as I write this. Bright sunshine.

I left early because I wanted to beat the clouds and perhaps even rain. Turns out that wasn't needed. I could have waited.

Second mistake was that I left right after I ate an early lunch thinking this would be fuel for the ride. Trouble is my system was using blood and energy to digest food when things should have been focused on my legs. I think riding should follow that same rule about waiting to go swimming for an hour after you eat.

All the way out I was riding into a steady and quite nasty headwind of about 15 mph that just took whatever little energy I had and threw it away.

I decided this was a bust and gave in to the small chain ring up front and some slow steady pedaling. Seven miles an hour would do up this long slog of a climb.

(I thought someone shot a me during the climb. Turns out I rode past a shooting range!)

When I saw Center street I thought I remembered that it was the place where the sunflower fields were located that I discovered last year. So I went in search of sunflowers I never found. All I found was a road that had three long and steady climbs. Nothing too steep, but they all went on for a long time, and with noodles for legs today, this was no fun.

This is when I happened upon the airport.

It was time to find a road to take me home.

Part of the lack of energy today may also be attributed to less sleep, as I was up at 5:00 a.m. to do a two-hour radio show in Naples, Florida this morning. Same thing for me tomorrow.

Right now, this feels like a good time for a nap.