Riding a horse of a different color

This morning I was cursing again. I brought with me over the weekend my cycling jacket, technical top, tights, shorts, socks, booties, extra spindle, etc., -- everything except my cycling shoes. Again. Gack! I even had my wonderful new cycling shoes with me, and new cleats also, but I hadn't mounted the cleats yet and I didn't have the all-important proper screws to affix the cleats to the shoes.

So instead of trying to find some suitable hardware at the Local Bike Shop or hardware store early on a Sunday morning, I rode our old clunker $150 Walmart Mongoose bike with platform pedals around the backroads. It was about 40*F and windy - maybe too cold for Bolder, but just fine with me.

Now that was weird. I've been riding with clipless pedals for about a year straight now. Today I'd lift my foot up off the platform pedal and instantaneously have a startled reaction - something's wrong! My cleat just let go! Oh, yeah, duh, I'm not using cleats.

It was sort of fun pedaling s-l-o-w-l-y around the rutted gravelly backroads and over grass and sand where I would never ride Buttercup. Even so, I definitely will get the cleats mounted on the other pair of cycling shoes this coming week so that I'm fully prepared wherever I am.

I saw a few Eastern Bluebirds today on my ride. I didn't realize until recently that they stayed around here all winter!