In retrospect, not the greatest of plans (wind didn't help)

I am pretty much a brilliant guy (at least that is what my mom used to tell me). So, as a brilliant guy, I know when I hear a brilliant idea. And conversely, I know when I hear and idea which is, not so brilliant.

If the above hypothesis is true, which it is, than I have no explanation for what happened this morning. The plan was that Dan would leave his house at first light and ride to Chris' house. Then the two of them would leave from there and ride to my place. Together we would ride kind of a loop taking them back towards their houses, I would "drop them off" and then ride home. At least, that is how I understood the plan.

We are usually pretty good with specifics of times, locations and routes. Not so in this case. I assumed Dan would leave his place around 5:40am and history suggests he can get to my place in just under 30 minutes (OST to just past Speedway is all downhill going north).

I want to be ready when they arrive, so I gear up and go outside to wait. As I exit my house, I notice it's a very windy day. Not sure how much this will effect the ride. Just after 6:00am, I ride to the top of my street and begin riding back and forth on Catalina Hwy between Harrison and Prince. Figuring I would see them coming and could ride to join them. It is at this point that I notice a brutal headwind when going north on Catalina Hwy. The force of the wind was completely amazing, as it whistled through the spokes of my front wheel. Riding in this was not going to be easy.

Thirty minutes later, when I am already a little tired from fighting the wind, and there is no sign of them, I begin to get worried. As I ride back to my house, I wonder if something has happened to them (flat tire? Javelina attack? we have a history, ya know... with tires. Not Javelina). I decide to call Chris to check status. He answers (kind of a surprise) and says they are on Soldier Trail, just about to turn west onto Ft. Lowell. "Ft. Lowell?" I say. I had no idea they were going out that far. I assumed they were coming down Houghton.

Since I know where they are, I decide I will ride out to meet them (A couple of minutes later, Chris calls back to suggest I ride out to meet them). I ride out Price, down Houghton and find them on the corner of Houghton and Ft. Lowell. By this time its nearly 7am and traffic on Houghton is too heavy to ride south (no bike lane or even shoulder on Houghton between Ft. Lowell and Tanque Verde). So we decide to go east on Ft. Lowell to Conestoga. There is a bike lane on Conestoga that I had not clue was there. Interesting! It doesn't go 'to' or 'from' anywhere, but it's there. We reach Tanque Verde and make the short jog west to Tanque Verde Loop. South on TVL to Speedway on over to Ridgeside. Again, another nice bike lane on Ridgeside all the way to 22nd. As usual, the ride south from Speedway to 22nd is a steady climb (in this case, winding as well) and a good workout. As we reach 22nd street, it is about 7:10 and I need to head home.

Chris and Dan head west on 22nd, as I begin a reverse traversal of my route. Approximately 25 minutes later I'm pulling into my driveway, and I'm not sure how, but the wind was just strategic enough to make every north AND east leg of the trip 2 times (or maybe 3 times) more difficult than usual. I only got 18 miles in this morning. This just didn't seem to go as planned. But perhaps the problem was not with the plan, but with my understanding of the plan. Live and learn. Mental note: more detailed plan = better ride!