Windy day ride

The wind never seems to stop here in Texas, and today was no exception to that.  It was blowing 20+ steady from the south all afternoon, with gusts up to 30 I am pretty sure.

I went out on a ride anyway, which was my first longer ride on the new bike.  It was also the first ride since I fiddled with the seat, bars and cushion(seatpad).  I was lucky in that the adjustments seem to be just about perfect.  I was able to ride for 2:27 without needing a neck rest.  This means when I do get/make my neck rest, I can recline the seat more for a more aero position.

Overall, it was a nice ride.  I only had an issue with one driver--I was spinning up a hill, at about the military crest, when suddenly an SUV decided he liked MY lane (or at least 2/3's of it) better than his own lane.  I bailed to the road edge of my lane, and turned around to watch him slowly drift back into his lane.  Mind you, he was topping a basically blind hill, 2/3's of the way into the oncoming lane!  I waved and yelled at him, but his windows were up, and he was oblivious. 

After making it to the top of the hill, the trio of horses in the adjacent pasture thought I looked VERY interesting!  Usually, horses seem spooked by a recumbent, but these 3 must be getting used to seeing me or something.  The trotted over to the gate, and wanted attention.  As I left, on down the road, they trotted after me in their pasture.  My oldest Monkey would've been thrilled!

The only other incident on the ride was when I tried to shuffle water bottles from the right to left bottle cages.  I can access the right side more easily/accurately so it gets drained first.  I wanted to move the bottle on the left over, and replace it with the empty one.  I managed the move of the full bottle over to the right cage, but fumbled the empty when I tried inserting it into the bottle cage. 

I stopped the bike and moved it off the road and put down the kickstand.  As I walked back to my errant bottle, I heard a crash!  My bike had been blown over by the wind.  Bugger!  Luckily, there was only a minor scrape on the left brake lever and no other apparent damage.  I made it home, for a total of 28.6mi.