A beautiful day to ride

The problem with doing our big JDRF ride in August is that it lowers my motivation to do a lot of riding in September and October. If I was part of the group that will be riding in Death Valley this coming weekend I'd be training heavily. Since we got back from LaCrosse I've only been on my bike a few times (and I've posted here even less). Today it was just too nice not to be out on my bike. 73 and sunny in October is not to be missed. I planned on doing about 20 miles. As I started north on the White Pine Trail I really didn't have a route in mind. I passed through Rockford, carefully avoiding the seemingly thousands of people also out enjoying the sunshine. I decided to ride up to Indian Lakes Road and turn west. This meant travelling directly into a very strong wind. No problem since I would soon be turning south. I turned on Edgerton Road and realized I was riding one of my favorite loops backwards. I also noticed that the wind had shifted to the south. Again, no problem because this route has lots of turns and hills that should block the wind. Nope. Once I got off the WPT I pretty much had a headwind until I got to the home stretch. As I made my way through the loop to House Drive my odometer rolled to 20 miles and I was still at least five miles from home. Once again no problem, because after I climbed up to Pine Island Drive the rest of the route was downhill or flat. I ended up with 26 miles. That gives me 998 miles for the year. A fairly low total but if the weather stays like this I'm sure I'll be able to break 1,000.