an unexpected encounter

Ok May, if you could slow down just a teeny, tiny bit I would appreciate it! It's Monday again, and I'm not quite sure how that happened. It feels like it was just Friday a minute ago! I had the day off on Friday and took advantage of this fact by going on a long ride relatively free of other people. On the weekends the paths and such are overcrowded by people whizzing by trying to keep their cadence high, families with double wide strollers ambling along and people walking their dogs with the leashes clotheslining across the path. It's nice to have a more peaceful secluded ride once in a while. I have surpassed my longest ride yet again, although it wasn't quite as long as it should have been, but 53 miles is pretty darn good I think. I think I've gotten to the point where I just need to knock these long rides out because every time I get back on the bike it's an easier, smoother and faster ride then the last. I did have the presence of mind to take some pictures for you, it was a great day to be out and about and I even remembered that my current phone has a camera! My last experience of the ride was a bizarrely coincidental one. I was biking in a tank top and stopped to cram a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into my mouth when I got a little cold and put on my Bike&Build jersey. Not thirty seconds after putting it on a biker screeched to a stop in front of me and asked me if I was riding this year! Turns out he is riding the South Carolina route and is leaving in two weeks! How random is that!? We are going on a ride together Tuesday after work and I will be able to pepper yet another person with my endless questions and maybe even answer a few of his. For now I will leave you with a few pictures:

1. I've never seen bicycle-specific roundabouts ever in my life, and every time I pass one I think how silly they are! I mean, even on the weekends with high traffic is there ever a real congestion problem? One of the roundabouts is right next to a golf course, and it's quite amusing to see the golf carts and the bicycles in the roundabout together....

2. The Platte River is a great river to bike next to, the path is nicely maintained and the water is such a nice thing to look at while cruising along. Last week the water rose so high in some places that the path was impassable!

3. & 4. These photos don't do the brilliant colors and contrasts justice really. Everything was so bright and sunny, and I loved the hot purple tree in between rows of white...