Next year will be different, probably

As we get into mid-October now, the outdoor cycling season is starting to wind down. Generally, when the temperature dips below 60, we Texans will consider that too cold for cycling outdoors. At least on a regular basis. Really, I'm not kidding. Around the end of October, first of November, most of us head indoors and start riding spin classes for the next 5 months. We occasionally will venture back outside for a ride once in a while, but that only serves to remind us why we headed indoors to begin with. After a quickly shortened ride, we usually wind up at the nearest restaurant, and/or bar, eating and drinking something to warm us, swearing that we now realize just how bad an idea that was, and that we'll never do it again.

Those of you who live in areas were the temperature generally doesn't get above 50 degrees for those 5 months, probably find that very funny. For you people, you just bundle up and pedal through the ice, and the snow, and the frostbite, and the hypothermia. Now read that last sentence again.....when you say it out loud like that, it's sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it. So while your laughing at us for heading indoors, trust me when I say, we're laughing just as hard at you for staying outdoors.

For me, the ride that symbolizes the end of the outdoor season, is our annual Pedal-2-Paris bike ride. I say annual, as this is the second year in a row that we've done this ride. Like I said, annual. We start on a Saturday, in a small town just north of McKinney called Blue Ridge, TX, and we ride about 75 miles to Paris, TX. I was sure to add the "TX" to that, just to be sure that you didn't confuse it with the Paris in France. Because you know, people are always getting those two confused. Then on Sunday, we turn around and ride back.

It should be said that our Pedal-2-Paris ride, (or the P2P as we like to call it because we think it sounds cool and somehow chicks will dig us), does not hit the bright lights of the big cities. If the entire membership of Team Bikin' shows up in Blue Ridge for the start of the ride, we have just about increased the population by 25%. Once we leave Blue Ridge, we won't see a town that "large" until we get to Paris. Along the way, we'll hit the thriving metropolis' of Frognot, Celeste, Ladonia, and Pecan Gap, just to name a few. This year we're in for a special treat as when we get to Paris, we'll be arriving just in time for the annual Pumpkin Festival. After the debauchery of that, I don't know if we'll be in any sort of shape to ride back on Sunday.

As with the end of every cycling season, I'll make my usual promises to myself. Those would be that I'm going to ride more, ride harder, ride more consistently next year. That next year, I'm going to find a bike rally to ride every weekend from the first of April, thru the end of October, and I'm not going to let trivial things like work, family, health, or anything else keep me from riding.

Yea, right. I'll be sure to let you know how that works out.

Peace out.......Nearly Famous Fred