Rain, rain, rain most of the night – finally stopped shortly after I got up. Another cloudy and chilly day, but got on the bike just after noon. There are so many great cycling paths around here that you hardly ever have to go on a road with cars.

Headed east to begin with – did go a very short way on a narrow side road and encountered a delivery truck that was trying to turn around in a very small area – hardly a 3-point turn. I backed right off and watched from a safe distance while he went back and forth 8 or 10 times to complete a half-turn on a corner and go back the way he’d come. As I continued I saw why he’d had to turn around – it was a dead-end for vehicles, but bikes and pedestrians could go on.

Crossed a road, then the path got more and more narrow – I had to pull in my elbows and duck my head at one point to avoid the bramble-bushes hanging down and on both sides.

Crossed over a motor-way then encountered a gate that blocked my way. I probably could have hefted the bike over, but it was fairly obvious that the path was only meant for walkers, and was very muddy from the rain.

Turned around and went down another paved path that again dead-ended near the motor-way, so ended up back-tracking almost all of the way home. Took a little ride around on the local cycle paths, then just went home – rode for about an hour in all so not as long as I’d have liked, but better than nothing and my fingers were getting cold.

Had another great fresh pasta dinner, which I followed up with strawberry cheesecake – very tasty but way too sweet for me to eat on a regular basis.

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