Guest Rider joins

Sometimes it rains all day.

Then the next day seems just fine all morning.  The problem began as soon as we were out of the garage, even before we were actually on the bicycles.  A front passed through and during the actual time of passing a pretty severe cloud cover had both of us thinking "rain".  It didn't but when we rode out from under the clouds we discovered that the new air mass was a fair bit cooler than the old bit.

And it was windy.

All things considered it was still a plenty nice enough day for riding.

We swung past the local bike shop and headed on back towards the lakeshore.  Here is the Guest Rider and her rental steed, a fairly nice women's specific crabon fibre framed Specialized Amira Comp, light as a feather and twice as pretty.

Drawbacks?  The very lowest level of the line Mavic wheelset, pretty far down the list Shimano components and a compact crankset.

But all in all a pretty nice bike, especially for a rental.

I have mentioned previously that these things only come along once every 1,000 miles so when I hit a Michigan bicycle ownership milestone we stopped and got photo verification.

I tried about five different settings, taking a photo with each and eventually ended up with one in quite useful focus.

The challenge now will be to remember which of the settings was the one that produced this image.

We got home to discover that there was wildlife outside the window again, this time the deer appears to be wearing orange camouflage.

Actually, of course, that's my new orange jacket.  The reason why today's ride included a stop at the local bike shop was because I decided I didn't want to ride any farther feeling as cold as I felt.

In an unusual business decision they let me wear the jacket out of the shop and return later in the day to arrange payment.

It helps a lot if your sister is one of the best customers that shop has.

Just waiting for sunset.