Orangecycle

As Amy and I waited for no one to show up, Amy spots Randy on his orange Co-motion. We chased him down only to come up behind and then wonder, you sure that's Randy he's lookin' pretty svelte. Neither of us were sure, but as we came around him, it wound up being none other than the Rand-Man.
We rode with him for about 15 miles, catching up on all the news, gossip, his amazing neighbors and his trip to Paris. My news was, like always, the rut is deeper.
All caught up it was time to stomp on the pedals. I mean this is Saturday, after all. We'd created a pretty good sized deficit with all the gabbing. I think we were averaging between 15 and 16 mph.
The wind was not interested in letting us make up any of this deficit, and our effort seemed at best futile. By the time we got to Waconia we had barely broken into the 18's and were seriously considering our reasons for exacting this punishment on our bodies. There was little solace in the fact that Mayer was a mere 5 miles away, and would mark the end of the wind's frontal assault. Nevertheless, we continued on.
Moods lightened some between Mayer and Watertown. A white spotted fawn shot across the road about 100 feet in front of us, its white tail pointing straight up. This slowed us down some, just to make sure mom wasn't about to dart out as well. Amy then saw a coiled snake on the road. That didn't slow her down any, just the opposite.
Our road closed in Watertown (they need to notify me about these closures ahead of my rides, you know), we decided to add a few more miles and ride to Delano. We still hadn't climbed out of the 18's, but we refueled with HoHos! in Delano (I forgot my money, thanks Amy) and Amy with Cheesy Crackers. HoHos inhaled, Gatorade gulped, Cheesy Crackers consumed, wind at our backs and a straight shot along County Rd 6...we might inch out of the 18's.
County Rd 6 might be a straight shot, I think we put a foot down once in 15 miles, but it ain't flat. Pushin' the quads and challenging the lungs, I'd see 24,25,26 on the flats, 19 and 20 on the ascents and even touched 30,31 on some of the descents. By the time we pulled into Wayzata, and just let me say, not all of us were happy campers when we got there, we'd gained 1 mph on our average. Acceptable!
Hard ride today. I put down a lot of water...I think 4 bottles and a 32 oz Gatorade, so it was a hot one. Wind got to us early. Amy was over 100 miles. Me? 89/19.4