The season starts

JDRF West Michigan - first team ride

Spring has been a long time coming. By this time last year we had been riding outside for over a month. Sunday was our first JDRF team ride of the season. We had a good sized group that showed up to the Clark's house in Grandville. Because of all the rain and subsequent flooding getting to their house took a little rerouting, but luckily the bike route itself was nice and dry.

To go off topic for just a bit, we've had over 9 inches of rain this April. We set a record for the month on April 18th. All the rivers in the area are over flood stage. In fact the Grand River crested yesterday at record high levels. I posted some photos over on Facebook.

Back to the bike stuff. This was the first team ride of the year and, for some of us, the first ride period. I did a few indoor trainer rides over the winter, but this was my first time riding outdoors. It was a sunny, if a bit cool, day.  There were three routes that ran south of Grandville with loops of 12, 19 or 27 miles. I chose the 19 mile option and Mary did the 12. Ian was on his way back from a percussion competition in Ohio so he didn't ride with us. It felt good to be out on the road again. I'm looking forward to putting many more miles under my tires as we prepare for the JDRF ride in Nashville this September.