Annual Thanksgiving Day Ride

Every year I try to ride from my house to my mother in laws for a massive recovery meal. I live at the very western edge of Lenexa and she lives in Raymore. It is right at 41 miles by the route I have now ironed out.

So I took off in 33 degree calm air with the sun promising to warm things up. It was a fast warm up. I was peeling layers at the 6 mile mark.

I wore the following:
TOP:
Short Sleeve Jersey
Arm Warmers
Long Sleeve Jersey
Wind shell w/ removable sleeves

BOTTOM:
Shorts
Wind Front Tights

OTHER:
Balaclava
Cross Country Ski Gloves
Toe Covers

This is a bit light if it was going to stay in the low 30's however I knew it was going to get warmer.... I was surprised at how fast it warmed up. Turned out to be a fantastic day. Low to no wind and wonderful warming sunshine, low traffic counts and the promise of Thanksgiving dinner at the end.

My route has been a trial and error event, trying new routes each year. I don't often ride very far East of where I live, so I have used Google Maps to plan a route. This doesn't give me any traffic info and the trial and error has lead to eliminating much of the heavy traffic sections of the route. I have done a couple of busy sections of 135th and Highway 150 that I would care to avoid. And I did some major zig zagging North and South through neighborhoods as well. It has been hard in the past to navigate without a map/cue sheet and the actual route has always been slightly different than planned. Well, this year marks the first year in 6 or so that I finally have a steady route that I can repeat next year, is simple and that I now, basically, have memorized. 127th street is my basic East West route and is a fine road for riding.

The ride was uneventful, but was very much needed. Relaxing and a nice 41 miles to help me with my yearly count. Here is a shot of the Big Blue River from E. Blue Ridge Blvd.

Here is a curious donkey/burrow/ass (I don't know my beasts of burden) who, once I stopped to check him out, decided to check me out.... he came over to the fence to get a closer look while I took the picture.

Here is a shot of one of the roads South of Longview lake. Some really nice riding out here.


Interesting roadside debris. No I did not open it to see who was inside.