Wednesday rides

As many of you central Iowa (or even midwest in general) people can attest, the weather has turned. This week was awesome, until today. Wednesday is my day off, and I took big advantage of what would likely be my last good day to ride for a while. I got up and out and headed down to the Center Trails in the middle of Des Moines. Conditions were outstanding; dry, fast, hard, every single piece of trail was ridden in, and excellent. The temps were in the mid to upper 60s. I wore a short sleeve jersey. That's how nice it was, summer weight clothes in early November, absolutely perfect. Check it:
I rode ever spur of every trail I could find. Spent a hair over 2 hours on the bike with several loops through Hillside in particular because it's the most fun and has the most flow. So much fun. I had a goofy grin on my face most the day.

After such a great ride with such great weather, I knew only one thing could be done that afternoon: more bike riding.
I generally ride to Ames on Wednesdays to drink fancy beers for not much money and do a team trivia thing at a bar, then take a car home from Ames with my wife, who's in Ames everyday for grad school anyway. This week was no different, save they finally finished R38 (pictured above). R38 is the road that runs north/south through Slater and has a bike lane on it. Before recently it was closed near Kelly, requiring a detour and several miles of gravel. Not a big deal but a minor hassle, and I'm glad they've opened the road. As you can see it is super smooth, and in great shape. With a tailwind, the ride was fast and fun, and ended with me at my favorite bar, with some of my favorite beers, all for $2 or less. Welch Avenue Station absolutely kills it on Wednesdays with any beer in the building for $2 or less. This includes things like Sam Adams winter lager, Spaten Optimator, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, etc etc. They have 19 beers on tap, about half "good" and quite a selection of bottles. I had 3-4 fancy beers for less than I would have paid in a grocery store. It was awesome.
Only minor problem I had was that I had wanted to brew some beer between bike rides, but I ran out of time. Oh well, like I said, minor problem.