Rainy

The H.O. got out of her duties at The Statehouse last night, so I had the opportunity to ride.
I got all of my poop in a pile, got the bike ready and no sooner did I walk out the back door, it started raining. I said "F" it and went out anyway. I was already dressed and the cross bike is filthy, so no harm, no foul.
Through Shandon, down into Five Points, it was raining pretty steadily. The roads around here are slick in the rain normally, but on a 700x35 knobby tire, pumped to 60 pounds, they are borderline glacial. I didn't even make the effort to cut through USC, as the bricks on the Horseshoe would have likely caused me to eat it.
Once I got across downtown and out to the river, the roads were dry. I did a good, steady tempo from the dirt road to the bridge. Nothing says lovin' like a 3.5 mile effort on a cross bike, on gravel.
I popped up across the Vista and hit a few parking garages. The garage at the Hilton is worthless...too many cars. The new garage by the old DMV building is great, just a bit scary. It's still under construction, so there are no lights. It was pretty spooky, but then again, I am a big wuss when it comes to the dark. The new garage on campus is pretty cool. It only goes up on one end, so you have a flat section that leads into a small rise and then a ramp to the next level.
After that one, I made my way back through Shandon and home. I got a good 90 minutes in the dark last night and still got home in time to see the management trainees off to bed.

Pretty good day, all in all.