Belated Birthday Ride

I try to do a mile for every year on the bike as a birthday ritual. I think this started on my 40th birthday. But for 44, I was still off the bike from bypass surgery. Then for 45 I was sick.

So I figured I owed myself a century: 44 form last year, 45 from this and one to grow on. Maybe even a bit beyond that, because if I got past 104 miles I'd have gotten 500 in for September, despite being off the bike for ten days due to illness and having to miss Bike 4 the Brain.

Uncontrolled and unforeseen circumstances, though, the night before the big event turned into a very late night. I figured I needed to get the bike under me by 6:00 a.m. to really get it done because I was staying in town and running errands in the process.

It was 9:15 when I was finally under way, I just could not get up to that alarm clock. But I felt good, and I made my way out into the Northeast and then downtown to finally get my KCMO library card (I have cards for JoCo and KCK, but I hadn't gotten one for the KCMO system and since I pass several of its branches on my bike commute, I really should be using it some of the time.

And I'd never gotten around to checking out the downtown library since it moved into First National Bank building. The parking garage is the part that gets the press, made to look like books on a shelf, but the building the library is in is marvelous. I'll have to go back when I have more time to explore.

Then I got some Indigo Wild soap at the factory on Wyandotte. Then picked up my new eyeglasses in Waldo and grabbed a Pizza Manifesto while I was in the neighborhood.

I had a dental cleaning at 3:30 out at 87th and Pflumn, and while I was having fun and made it there on time, I realized I was in a bad way for getting the century done. Leaving the dentist at around 4:15 I only had 38 miles in the saddle. But I soldiered on. I had run all the errands I had to run, so I figured I'd make better mileage after that.

Which was true up to a point. I hopped on the Mill Creek Trail in Shawnee Mission Park, explored the new leg off it that goes out west, then took it up to Holiday Drive and took that to 55th, coming up through Turner. I could have taken that down into Johnson County again, probably needed to to get my miles in but it was getting late and I had to work the next day. I got dinner at Cristy's Tasty Queen in Turner and figured I'd head home.

I got to a point on the trail out west that said the trail was closed, but I could see it went on so I climbed the barrier and rode on. For about a hundred yards, when the trail terminated in some tall grass at the edge of a golf course. At that point, the trail is closed even to a scofflaw such as myself.

I got home at 10:30 with 83 miles in. I had the legs to finish the century but it'd have taken me past midnight and tuning in to the Royals game we learned it was in extra innings (our first visit to the playoffs since 1985), so I followed the game as best I could via smartphone (no TV at home, couldn't find the power chord for the radio) and called it a day.