It was a wild ride to the salvage store yesterday.

The wind chill was in the mid-30s; and there were gusts up to 22 mph. I\’m glad I decided not to use the trailer. As it was, it felt like I\’d never get to the store!

Of course I looked through the grab-bag bins — and found an RXBar! There were some packs of BelVita, too; and I got a few candy items for portioning out.

Then I took a leisurely stroll through the store. I found corn tortillas; mild green taco sauce; canned chicken; and more.

Thanks to the weather, I decided I could leave the cooler at home. That left more space in my panniers; and sure enough, the large bag of frozen peas I bought stayed cool.

Then came the wild ride home. The wind direction meant that I got a lot of headwind, both going to the store and riding back home. At least I wasn\’t in a hurry on the way home; and thank goodness it wasn\’t raining!

It was a good thing I fueled up a bit before I began that ride. If I hadn\’t, I would have gotten too hungry! My foraging in the grab-bag bins unearthed a 4-piece package of SnackWell\’s; and I ate two of the cookies. Even so, my stomach was growling when I got home.

And Today

And today — well, I tried.

I knew that the weather would be cold; and I knew it would be cloudy. At about 8:30 am checked the NOAA site. Temperature, 39 degrees (or 4 degrees, if you prefer Celcius). Wind, 10 mph, from the North. There\’s a hard freeze watch in effect, starting tomorrow evening; and a wind chill watch, too.

I had already prepared my ride food; and last night I fixed a recovery drink: cashew milk with Vega. So I decided to be brave and go out on the road bike. Muy plan was to ride out 15-16 miles before turning back for home, but I ran into several problems.

One, last Friday I forgot to recharge my Garmin. It almost certainly would have given me the Low Battery signal halfway through my ride; and it\’s aggravating when that happens. Two, I put warmers in my gloves; but my fingers were freezing before I had gone one mile.

Another problem is that getting a bite to eat is awkward when I\’m wearing those heavy gloves; and today I ran into mist about half a mile from home. Over many miles, that means getting quite damp; and with a headwind on the way home, I would have gotten miserably chilled.

So I decided to turn around before I had gone even two miles. On the one hand, that makes me feel like a cowardly wimp. On the other, however, wisdom is the better part of valor.