Linda rented a beach house in Yachats for Memorial Day weekend, and we all were there.

This week I get to reflect on just how great it is to commute by bike. Of course I've been riding to work for years, but up until this year my ride was just a few blocks, in Ashland where it hardly ever rains. Since January I've had a 5.5 mile ride each way in Corvallis where it rains all the time. I haven't missed any rides due to rain, but I did take the bus twice when the roads were too icy.

I've lived in Oregon for 40 years but I never heard of a place called Waterloo. But there it was on the Mid Vally Bicycle Club's list of flat rides. I'd been wanting to do a cross valley ride and this sounded like the one. The forecast was for showers, but although it was cloudy when I left it didn't seem like it would rain. I was hoping my ride to Waterloo would turn out better than Napoleon's.

This was going to be a long ride so I took the shortest route through Corvallis, across the river, to Peoria road. Peoria road is the main escape route from the busy highway 34/20 so lots of rides go that way.