Yesterday I did an hour long ride (about 12 miles - a nice, easy pace to get back into the saddle) on a long loop mostly along the Farmington River. I only had to stop once for traffic. It helps to be doing a clockwise route so virtually all the turns are right-hand. What a joy to just pedal and pedal and pedal. That's something I really missed in Taiwan. There was only the one long, unbroken stretch along the edge of Cijin Island, about 4 miles, where you could pick up speed and settle into a rhythm. The rest was city streets or, at best, the bike path with many obstacles and cross streets. Yesterday was lovely.

Hiking Sunday turned into biking Sunday instead. Cross-training is a good thing, right? For the first long ride of the season we biked north on the bike path for an hour - turned out to be 12 miles - and turned around. On the way back we stopped for coffee at Little Red Riding Hood, a very nice and well-situated restaurant right on the bike path. A little chilly, a little windy, but lovely none-the-less.