And yes, there is a story behind the 'by George' title. More about that in a bit. First a nice little story from near the start of my ride today. As I was approaching a 4-way stop there was a pickup clearly already stopped and with the right of way to go first. But as I rolled up he waved me through. As I turned left and passed near his open driver's side window he stuck his head slightly out and said, "Heck you're out there workin' a lot harder than me."

See it doesn't always have to be angry relationship between drivers and cyclists that you hear and read about so often. Today I bumped into one of the good guys.

And speaking of bumping into good guys, my plan today was to do a Three Bridges 35 mile route in the middle of the day. Just after crossing Loomis I jump onto the Oakleaf MUP into Franklin. Just over the first bridge I saw a rider jump onto to path in front of me. He was rockin' what looked like a tri setup road bike with three-spoke carbon wheels and tri bars.

I rode behind him about a block back for some time. All I know is I was riding low 18's and the gap was steady, so I figured this guy was an athlete up there. He didn't appear to be riding hard at all either, sort of just a normal easy pace for him. As I would find out later, I was right about that by the way.

At one point I figured he would turn off and the bait of chasing him down would be gone. But he rode in front of me all the way to where I had to change my plan and go for a little longer ride, deciding I would go ahead and try to catch him. I finally did catch him just past Oakwood, but only because it seemed like he knew I was back there and just wanted me to catch him to be able to chat.

And chat we did. He altered his route as well so that he could ride with me on what turned out to be my 43-mile 7-Mile Rd. route today. Indeed, he is a triathlete who had just done half the Lakefront Marathon yesterday. He was just out doing a little recovery ride.

Man, we rode side by side in some cold wind shooting the breeze for miles, talking about training and people we know into cycling. It was great. We rode all the way back to where he had jumped onto the path in the first place. He rides around there almost daily he said. Nice guy. Good chat. Great little ride. Although I must admit, being in such poor riding shape these days, my quads and groin muscles were starting to threaten to hit me with major cramping right in the final five miles. Again, that's just being out of riding shape and jumping on board for 43 miles with some hills.

Back-to-back rides now in, it appears my next chance at a ride will be Friday.

As of right now I have meetings in the middle of the day for the next three days.

It sure is pretty out there when the sun is out. Having the sun out makes all the difference in the world to me.

Thanks for the spin George!