"Brother, you are some brave!"

That's what the sheriff told me, as i chilled out at the corner of Bluebonnet and Highland at 5:25 am Saturday morning. With only my two meager blinkie lights going, i explained to the officer, "I've got this helmet light, but it runs so hot, i can only turn it on while riding". We laughed and he asked where i was riding to, probably so he could later accurately answer the question, "Where did you last see David Alexander alive?" All went well though, Charles and Norman stood me up, at first i figured it was an initiation rite, to make me ride in the dark by myself, later i deduced that Norm had probably drank too much the night before, which was true. We all regrouped at Alex Box stadium for 6:00, a nice sized group that continued to grow the longer we went. My favorite addition was Ed who greeted us with a deafening "F YOU!" Classic. Anyway, this ride is the bomb, you get 3 hours in before your significant others are even close to awake. Also, i find Baton Rouge is really beautiful in the pitch dark, so that works. Finally, no more being the only guy on a road bike, all these people are just blasting me on their tt machines. Norm put it best, "it feels like you're being motorpaced" except with conversations going on.

Finally, it's really inspirational to see SOOOO many groups out riding before the normally huge 9 am group ride. Our group was big, but we probably saw 4 or 5 groups of 5 to 10 riders going out while we were coming in.