Weekend of firsts

I had a couple of firsts for the new year this weekend. I was invited by my son to play softball with a bunch of people he works with so we were out at 8:30 Saturday morning in the 25 degree temperatures practicing. With the sun shining it actually didn't feel too bad. But is was the first time I've played in a couple of years. Even then it was a sporadic thing. I used to play a lot but that was 25 years ago. I don't know when the games will be but this team is just in it for the fun. This will be a new experience for me as well.

On yesterday's ride past one of the farms there was a cow standing on the outside of the fence near a gate looking in at his buddies. I don't remember seeing a loose cow before. I stopped in at the farm to let them know so they could make sure the cow was safe.

On the same ride I had my first dog chase of the year. It was on a road I've ridden many times and never saw this dog before. Then for good measure I got chased two other times on the ride,once by two dogs at the same time. I hope I got my dog chases out of the way early. It's can be hard to outrun them when you are riding a singlespeed but you do get your hear rate up.

Today I got my first ride on an actual trail that was solid dirt. I had gone over to the west side of the state to preride a back road race I might be doing in a few weeks. It was just around the corner from a trail that is usually considered one of the first in the state to be ready to ride come spring. I did a lap of the road course and then drove over to the parking lot for the trail and found that the trail was generally ready to ride. So I switched bikes and did a loop of the trail. There were a lot of people out enjoying the nice day, both on foot and on bikes.

All in all the warmer weather and sunshine made for a great weekend of riding.