One of the challenges to cycling is weather. By necessity, unless the cyclist is part hamster, cycling is an activity that is best done outdoors. An axiom (not mine originally) that I subscribed to when I was a spandex sporting road cyclist, was that I would ride in rain if caught in a storm but never would I start a ride if it was wet. Only occasionally have I ignored that little rule, usually when rain has prevented me from riding for too long and I just had to ride, even then only if my spare bike was ready to ride. When my cycling interest gravitated more to mountain bike and riding dirt, weather became even more of a factor. Now, it’s necessary to make sure that trails are not too muddy to ride, as well as planning my time a little more carefully due to the time it takes to drive to the trails I ride the most.
Finally, we have had a week in Chicagoland without too much rain. Getting rides in has been difficult a good portion of this summer. It has just been too wet. Last month, I had scheduled a four day weekend with the hope of visiting some out of town trails. Alas, that week was the one where there was flooding everywhere within a four hour drive. I made lemonade out of the lemons, stayed put, managed to get some rides in at the trails I always ride. They dry out quickly.
I am driving to Duluth this Thursday to ride what are touted to be incredibly good singletrack trails there. Thursday, of course, has a 66% chance of rain. I am going no matter what. Hopefully, I get the 34% chance of no rain. My camping reservations are until Sunday, with reasonably good forecasts for the remaining days. I will get my riding fix.
For those interested, my status is still separated, although there has finally been correspondence regarding a settlement. My lawyer responded to hers today regarding a request for temporary maintenance, as well as addressing some mutual debt and child expenses that she is refusing to share with me. I am probably overly optimistic, but there could be agreement on a settlement within the next few weeks. Honestly, the real difficult part of this whole process has been the waiting. The other stuff is just that.. stuff.
I could really use a few days of spinning outside of reality, however.
