First Cold Ride

Well, we have both ridden when it is very cold but this was the first "fun" ride we rode when the temperatures were cool. The high was 51. Not horrible but we were going to be out all day. When we got home, it was 41. Luckily it was a BEAUTIUFUL sunny day so we were itching to get out and ride.

With the time change, there is just not a lot of daylight to get our rides in. We started out around 10:30am (we got back at 6:15pm). There were two circuits we wanted to try and complete. One of them we had done before but the GPX files were split into two files. This would give us a chance to record the entire ride into one file. The second route I had completed before but Kirk had not.

The first route we did was over quite a number of roads we have driven many times before. With the leaves off the trees, the fields empty of crops, and not many people out and about, the ride was fantastic. The traffic was minimal at best allowing for a care free day of enjoying the sights and driving our bikes. Ok, so we do happen to talk a lot during our rides. I also have my music going but in most cases, we spend all day just chatting about everything.

And as we have stated before, our tires have really changed how we feel about riding off road. The bikes seem to feel more stable and we are definitely driving much faster than before. In some cases, we were hitting over 40mph. At the end of our first route, we ended up at one of our watering holes, The Bigfoot Bar and Grill. We stopped for lunch about 1:15pm. We left about 2:45pm (there were some great football games on and we eat slow).

After lunch, it was about a 25 mile drive to the start of our next route. This route jumps off road right from the start. We through our bikes into Off Road mode and headed out.

This route has fooled me so many times that I spent an afternoon making sure I got the directions correct and recording the route. It is really not all that confusing but there are two places where the route overlaps and sometimes that confuses the GPS.

Both of us were loving this route. It is back into farm country and tons of cotton fields. This time, all the cotton had been picked but there are still plenty of sights to keep you occupied.

We finally got to the end of the ride and it was starting to get dark. We checked the GPS and home was almost 60 miles away (I did not think it was that far away - my mistake). We headed out and got to ride and see a beautiful sunset.

It did get dark on us and it did get cold on us but overall, it was a great day and we had a great time hitting the roads. Looking forward to the next trip.