Every Tuesday morning at 8:30 AM, a group of bicyclists from Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort—they call themselves the Blazing Saddle Sores Bicycle Club—ride 3 to 5 miles to a restaurant for breakfast, and return.  The resort (and Bentsen Palm Development as a whole) has over 10 miles of bicycle trails on or adjacent to the property, and the city of Mission has many more, facilitating this weekly breakfast ride.  Kay and I had never ridden with the group before, and I didn’t know quite what to expect this morning when meeting up with the group at the front gate; Kay opted not to go as she is still recovering from the bicycle accident on Sunday.  I may have been the youngest among the 8 men and 5 women riders.  At 8:30 AM the wind is usually not a factor, and the ride was conducted at a comfortable pace—not too fast, and not too slow.  I rode towards the back of the group, with two riders and a tail gunner behind me, as seen in the first photo.  Our ride was about 4.5 miles each way, and we followed the bicycle trails where possible, but did have to ride about 1.5 miles in traffic on the side of the roadway.  Breakfast was at a small Mexican restaurant, and was good and cheap.  My breakfast of eggs and ham, refried beans, tortillas, and coffee was less than $5.00, including a $1.00 tip.  On our return, shown in the photo on the left, the wind had picked up, and made pedaling more difficult, particularly since I had moved towards the front of queue and didn’t have but one person blocking the wind.  It’s not an easy chore taking a picture behind you while riding a 21-speed bicycle along a city highway!  The ride back was a bit more loose, as here was no particular objective except to get back to the RV resort. A good soak in the hot tub and pool afterward sure felt great, and eliminated most aches and pains, though my thigh muscles did tighten up in the afternoon.
The fruit and vegetable truck/trailer came as scheduled at 2:30 PM, and we bought 3 limes (for salsa), a head of cabbage, and 2 pineapples already “peeled” and cored. Kay sang a couple of songs at the jam session followed by a visit to the hairdresser, while I worked on our Christmas newsletter.
As is usual, we met at the palapa for a couple of hours to socialize with the neighbors, and had a pretty quiet rest of the evening.