I Fell...

Total for this ride: 51.8 miles

Total for this year: 351.8 miles

Round trip from home to RIT and back to attend the quarterly Air Force Association meeting.  On the outbound I followed Rt 251 going west until I hit Rt 15, then turned north and worked my way over to the campus.  On the return I rode with Roger Easton, starting with the route I typically use when going home - East River to the Erie Canal towpath, and then east on the towpath to Schoen Place in Pittsford.  We stopped at Schoen Place to have lime shebert shakes while waiting for another friend, Larry Belle to join us for part of the ride.  When we took off again we decided to visit the house that Chester F. Carlson (the inventor of electrophotography and the father of Xerox) once lived in.  I knew it was somewhere in the area but had never seen it.  Fortunately Roger had been there before so he took the lead.   Turns out it's near the end of a dead end residential street.  We slowly rode past the house (at least the one Roger THOUGHT was the house...), and then made U-turns to head back.  I was at the end of the pack, and didn't think to unclip before making the tight slow speed turn.  That was a mistake.  I lost my balance at the end of the turn, but before I could unclip and get my foot down, I found myself laying on my right side in a bed of thorny vegitation just off the asphalt, feet still firmly clipped into the pedals.  Fortunately I was going very slowly and fortunately I landed in the vegitation, so there was absolutely no damage to me or the bike.  I unclipped, got up, brushed myself off, and hopped back on to resume the ride.  I just wish that one of the other guys had a camera because a shot of me fallen on the side of the road would have made a great addition to this entry.  I made it home without any further incidents.

Notes from this ride:

1. I'm REALLY getting tired of riding in the cold.  It was in the mid-30's when I took off this morning.

2. I need to get a rack.  I'm REALLY getting tired of riding with my junk in a backpack.  It's not a big deal for a short ride.  But after riding over 50 miles, I can feel it.