It rained late yesterday afternoon. Today the morning wind was from the south, gentle and moist. The sky was blue and clear. We decided on a short 20-mile loop. It would give our legs a stretch, but it would give us enough time to do some chores before lunch.
We rode past the little nearby airport. To our surprise, there was a small jet parked there. I know nothing about small planes (my apologies to my brother for my ignorance) but I had absolutely no idea a plane like this could use a small airport such as ours!
There were some eye catching flowers along our route. A homeowner had planted moon flowers at the base of a telephone pole at the corner of his yard. These bloom at night, but we were riding by early enough to catch them open. They look like gigantic white morning glories. You can see my foot below the flower on the left. The flower is an inch or two above my foot, so the flower size is not an artifact of the camera angle.
But perhaps my favorite spring flower is the yucca. These plants are plentiful in the sandy sections of scrub. The stalks of creamy white flowers stand out among the drought dry grasses growing nearby.
I spent some time last night beginning the planning for next year's bike trips, something I do in phases. In addition to a handful of rides like the Horrible Hundred that we love and wouldn't miss for anything, we want to do some bike touring as well. We tour on mountain bikes equipped with street tires which lets us ride on pavement, gravel, or hard-packed sand. I have a bunch of things I want to do with the mountain bikes over the summer. They need new tires, and I want to explore whether new wheels would be interesting. I'll post about that and our touring gear over the next month or two.
