My bride has become confident enough on her Sun X-1 to venture forth into the neighborhood. The skies were clear and the temps were close to 70F. She got onto her Sun, I climbed into my Tour Easy and away we went. We stayed on quiet residential streets and on the few busy streets we encountered we used the sidewalk. We rode through a cemetery and were able to ride side by side which was great fun for me as I almost always am a solo rider. We even managed to include a nice MUP which cuts through some woods and then runs along the river for about three miles. We generally rode around 8 mph which is just fine for a couples leisure ride.

Arriving at the mouth of the river we found ourselves in a large lakeside park. That's where we saw him. I had caught a quick glimps of a yellow jersey in a recumbent position across the cemetery earlier in the ride and asked this gentleman if perhaps that had been him. It was either ask that question or break the ice with "Nice bike!" which I'm sure he's heard often enough. He was riding a Rans Stratus and it appeared to be a 26" x 20". We spoke for a while, exchanged favorite ride routes and then went on our seperate ways...he back towards his home some 15 miles west of us, and us to a nearby diner for a hot lunch.

I don't often encounter other recumbents on the north side of town so it was quite nice meeting this gentleman. I expect we'll be seeing more of each other as we tend to ride in many of the same areas. As far as the bride and I, we rode 12 miles. We'll probably enjoy another ride together next week at the same leisurly pace and hopefully the weather will cooperate again.