Yes!! another great day for a bike ride. The temperature at the start of my ride was a comfortable 83 degrees with humidity at 90%. The wind was a reasonable 8 mph from the Southeast. Aha, perfect for my Forty Friday route. The first 20 miles were into the wind with the expectation I would be riding back with a, yes!!!! a tailwind. As I made my turn for home I saw a cluster of clouds in the distance. According to my meteorological background, perfect conditions for a "pop up" storm. The good news was that no storm appeared. However, as the clouds approached, the wind shifted so, on the ride back, the wind was from the Northwest. The good news was it was not a mere 8 mph, rather, 15-20 with gusts to 25 mph.; a 40 mile ride into a headwind. Now, this might sound a bit facitious but I considered it a good training ride in preparation for the East Coast. By the time I had arrived into town, as I passed the time and temp. sign at the bank, the temperature had climbed to 93 degrees. At least I am avoiding the heat of the day. Mad dogs and Englishmen!! Followers of this blog: My East Coast Ride begins two months from today. I hope to provide more pictures as well as description. Look forward to the comments.

Beautiful day to take a bicycle ride. 92 degrees, the wind from the SW at 15 mph and that was the good thing about the ride. Those who are not familiar with the Midwest probably are unaware that at this time of the year the Japanese beetles infest the corn and bean fields. It's not good for the plants and especially aggravating for the biker. In about a week planes will "crop dust" for those little bastards but, of course, they will not be totally eliminated so that next summer the cycle continues. There's nothing like cruising along and all of a sudden one of those Japanese/Asian beetles will do a kamikaze run into your face. It's painful and most annoying. And, it also hurts the biker. Ha, good one!! Now here is the irony of it all. Often a motorist will stop and ask directions. This has happened to me numerous times. Well today, a motorist stopped me on RT. 150 to ask if he was headed in the right direction to Pekin Il. (obviously not Peking china!!) Good thing he stopped because he was headed in the opposite direction. I instructed him to turn around and gave him the proper routes to get him to Pekin. In fact, I told him if he continued the direction he was headed he would indeed arrive in Pekin.....China that is!! Now for the irony. Dodging Asian beetles, a motorist stopping for directions to Pekin and the driver of the vehicle was........wait for it.......from China!!! Irony!!!