WOW! I love winter riding!

Picture stolen from Cory's blog!

What an incredible day! I slept in until 9:00 AM. Yes! Then I made some coffee and ate my Sugar Smacks! I knew Cory would be coming around 10:00 for our ride so I started getting ready to go. We got started around 10:30 or so. We had no clue where we were going to ride so I decided that we would just ride a loop of mostly gravel around Ames in a clockwise fashion. Click here for the route. I thought it would be around 20 miles. Opps. This is just too typical of my rides. It ended up being just a hair until 35. We took off at a comfortable pace and were having a ball. I had woke up with a NASTY cold with my head pounding. Not that I told Cory, but if he had called to call it off I would have been ok with it as I just felt like crap (of course I would have missed out on seeing Cory again which would have sucked).

Within the first couple of miles I was feeling great. Isn't that how it goes!??! We weren't setting any speed records by any means but we had great conversation catching up on how things are going now that Cory is living the good life in Salem, Oregon.

We continued to push with both of us complaining just a tad about losing our fitness and reminiscing about last year's winter rides. We did some crazy stuff last winter that is for sure.

I sure miss Cory. My friendship with him is a good one. With my day to day busyness with work and family life I can TRULY appreciate my friendship with Cory. He has this incredible attitude and it has even improved since I first met Cory around two years ago. Two years ago it was apparent to me that he wasn't the most happy person with his job. Sometimes even coming across with a bit of angst. Then... his girlfriend Jess started looking at law school and he was looking at going to UBI to learn the art of building bikes. He started the count down on his blog from nearly a year out and he became (at least from my prospective) more laid back and comfortable knowing that better things than a 9-5 job that he disliked was coming down the pipe. He then saved all kinds of cash (his job did pay well!) and paid off everything. Now, living in Salem, Oregon he has taken several months off of the day to day grind. Wouldn't we all love to do that?

So, to see him today was wonderful. He had a presence about him that was that he was living the life. And.... he is. I am so happy for him. He is a very sharp guy with tons of talent in so many things. For him to take a break like this is something we all could use. I am happy that he has done it. Once again, having the nads to pay off all debt and live off of savings is quite the accomplishment. I can't wait to see all the things he accomplishes.

So... back to the ride! We rolled into Gilbert with about 35 miles in. We walked in to the house to find that it was about 1:15! I think we rode for about 2 hours 45 minutes or so. We went inside and drank a pot of coffee and just chilled for a bit. What a wonderful day of vacation!

Cory, thanks so much for taking the time away from your family to spend a bit of time riding. It is appreciated.