April 19, 1943 was the first reported intentional use of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), the hallucinogen (which I’ve never tried and am not advocating you do either, but hey, it’s still sort of a free-ish country). Dr. Albert Hoffmann rode his bike home while tripping on acid, Marc in the high bike photos below told me. I looked up the article on Wikipedia, which is never wrong, and found it appears to have some basis in reality. (Also, Good Passover.) I got 4 PRs on this ride, too! Not bad considering knee pain, no clip-ins or kit, and not having been on a fast group ride in many months (which makes you faster). Below are more photos and highlights of my ride. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Weather Too Gorgeous Not to Ride

The thing about this ride was that it was completely unplanned. But it was a clear, crisp day that simply demanded I go for a ride. So I did. Who am I to quarrel with Mother Nature? I’m just a dude. When I left a meeting I had walked to, I thought of going home to ditch my backpack, have a bit to eat, and put on my Pearl Izumi bike shoes, padded bike shorts and sweat-wicking jersey.

I thought better of it since I thought of another errand and if I went home, there wouldn’t be enough time to get there before they closed. Plus, I was not aiming for a long, fast ride. In fact, as one commenter texted after I sent out the photo of Sophie with the flowers, my ride was pretty slow, wasn’t it? Well, as I replied, it was. The average for this ride was 10.1 mph, with a top speed of 27. I’m not very happy with my slower miles per hour average as of late, but I’m having to accept it. Hey, it was 10.1 mph faster than you sitting on your bum, arse, tuchus, butt, ass, backside, derriere, posterior and so on!

The interesting part about riding without a route is that it’s both freeing and maybe a little easy to get lost or pick a wrong road. At one point I stopped to look at a map because I knew that if I went down Cat Mountain, I was going to have to climb back up it. I found an alternate route which had plenty of down hill too, but fortunately only one short very steep section. Somehow I made it up with Sophie’s 9 gears, although I admit to zig-zagging several times to reduce the grade. It was good to know I still have the legs, somewhere in my… legs. And the hill part wasn’t too hard on the knees, either. It’s an odd injury that I can’t figure out, because biking both sometimes helps and sometimes hurts.

Photo Galleries from My Ride

I never claimed to be a great photographer, but I think I do alright. Everyone with a smart phone these days can get some pretty high quality images without much effort. Well, that’s my opinion, I’m sure some professionals would disagree. To them I would quote THE Dude, who famously said in The Big Lebowski: “Well, that’s just like, your opinion, man!” Here are some shots from this ride I think you’ll like. 

These wildflowers, including the state flower, the bluebonnet, were at the J.J. Jake Pickle Research Center, which is part of the University of Texas. Sophie strikes a pose:

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I haven’t been out this far northwest for a while, so I got to see some places I have missed. That includes this street which has a peek at where the Central Texas Hill Country begins at the Balcones Escarpment. These are some crazy expensive and nice houses which definitely have a “room with a view”:

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Almost always, I see cool stuff when biking, like Marc and his high bike. He was nice enough to stop and let me take some shots:

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Every Day is Bicycle Day for A Dude

In the end, I was treated with a view of the rising full moon, which had an orange tint. Those photos never turn out well. I made my way home, happy to have put in a decent longer ride than I have been on my various commutes to appointments and errands. A simple joy ride, like I blogged about a while ago. It was just for the fun of it, with “no particular place to go” (which is the title of a blues standard), on a perfect day. Aside from maybe helping and hurting my knees simultaneously, there were no injuries, wrecks or tickets, for which I’m always grateful.

In the end, it was just another day in the life of A Dude Abikes. “Live to ride another day,” Sam says. One never knows what the future holds. Well, death and taxes figure heavily into it. But I can hope to forestall both of those and enjoy more incredible days with great rides like this one. If you’re a bike rider, runner, or other outdoor enthusiast, I hope for the same for you too. If you’re not, hopefully you can still make some part of your day great in ways that work for you. Hasta la vista, baby!

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