Finally, we hit the 5000-mile mark for the year 2022. We certainly took our sweet time as we needed 363 days/161 rides to reach our goal this year. That’s an average of 31 miles per ride for those keeping score at home.

At the start of December, we were 103 miles shy of our goal with the strength of the sun diminishing and the weather outlook deteriorating. On December 4 we layered up and braved the 47 degree temps as we racked up a little over 25 miles.

Four days later the temps were in the sixties which is in our “acceptable” range. Of course we had to wait until early afternoon to enjoy the warming trend. Who starts a ride at 12:33…isn’t that lunch time? Yes, we were hungry and we cut the ride short at around 15 miles.

After another 4 days, we squeeze in a late afternoon ride of 12.5 miles. This quest is taking forever because the weather isn’t cooperating. We haven’t seen much sun these last few weeks and our opportunities are few and far between.

A week later the sun finally shines – but it’s very cold. It’s December 19 and we are running out of time so we pull out our Gore-tex collection. Here I am in the “warmth” of our garage right before the ride.

It was barely 40 degrees when we started this ride. Mitzi’s “buck it up buttercup” played nonstop in my mind that day.

With 23 miles to go, the polar vortex takes hold in our part of the country. It was very cold – too cold to even go outside to walk for a few days.

Time was running out. As we kept checking the forecast ahead, we realized that things were supposed to warm up in the middle of the last week of the year. And fortunately we surpassed our goal on December 29 as we enjoyed a stunning day with temps in the 50’s and the sun shining brightly.

Wishing all of our readers a happy and healthy New Year and looking forward to more exciting adventures ahead.

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