Roderick and I found ourselves at Rougemont. The access to the St. Laurence Seaway Wall is now closed for the season. At least is is from the part close to my home. We can drive 20 minutes to the other locks and do the ride backwards, St. Catherine-to-St. Lambert and back, or we can drive 40 minutes and end up at Rougemont.
Giovianni is starting his busy season and was not free to ride, so I convinced Rick that he should come out. I've been trying to get him to come out for a night ride for a couple of years now. He's turned it down, partly I think because he considers(ed) it to be too extreme for him. Any way he finally decided to join me and he had a great time.
The weather was spectacular! Probably around 4 or maybe 6 degrees C (40-43F), no wind at all and only a little bit of ground wetness from an earlier light rain. No hat required under the helmet, very light layers, no shell either. My choice of winter tights was too hot, lighter fall/spring tights would have been fine.
I set him up with my spare lights, one on the helmet, and one on the handlebars and we were off for over an hours pedalling in the woods. I really should have brought the coffee kit as it would have been a perfect night for it.
Before the ride with lights on the helmets
Wednesday was also the actual date Loren and I mark our anniversary. Though as mentioned before we actually celebrate on the new moon. And I didn't bring flowers or a card to go along with the romantic dinner I prepared.
So Wednesday I wrote the poem, and got flowers. They were put upstairs in the bedroom on the cedar chest. Loren would not expect that I would have had any reason to go up there, as I was busy prepping for the night ride. Also we keep it closed so that Luna stays out of our bed during the day while we're out, so I was sure to close access to the bedroom, as not to give it away that I had been in there.
I'm sure she thought I had forgotten, and probably felt that another bike ride was keeping me from thinking about her, and as expected she only went up much later after her dinner and typical evening routine...and was quite stunned by my little offering. She left me a very nice message when she discovered it.
The sound in her voice told me she was touched.