Koninginnedag

As we drove home from our Bible Study session last night, we debated about stopping by the grocery store. Since the month was ending we needed a few more purchases to get to the next level for earning a 10 cent per gallon fuel discount. The weather has been so nice that I suggested that we just hop on our bikes after work and ride to the store.

The grocery store is only about a mile away so it sounded like a great plan, until we turned on The Weather Channel when we got home. There had been no winds of note in the forecast, but suddenly there is a ticker running across the bottom of the screen announcing a high wind warning for today with 30 mph winds and gusts up to 50 miles per hour. Not what we had in mind!

When I got home it certainly was windy, but after a winter of no bicycling we're pretty anxious to get out whenever we can. I've also been thinking a lot lately about the Netherlands and remembering out trip last April. I've often thought about how our Dutch friends bicycle in just about any weather, so it seemed fitting that since it was Koninginnedag today that we should give it a try.

The Weather Channel showed 21 mph winds and 36 mph gusts when we left the house. The Highway 89 corridor that we have to ride on is a real wind tunnel, and our informal wind indicator (the flag at the local McDonalds) was blowing so hard that it was absolutely straight.

Despite all this, the ride surprised us with how doable it turned out to be. Even in the face of a headwind it wasn't nearly as tough as we expected. Of course, on the way home it's uphill but we have the benefit of a tailwind.

So our celebration of  Koninginnedag consisted of bicycling in weather that we would have normally considered unbikeable. It felt pretty good, but it occurred to me later that I should have worn my orange souvenir t-shirt!