Morning on the Bike

Hi everyone,

I'm typing this on my phone at my brother-in-law's place at Violet Town as I wait for him and the old boy to get here.  The barbecue is on and I'll cook up some  schnitzels for lunch. Mmm, protein!

It's been a full morning for me. I think I said yesterday that I was cycling in Ride the Ranges 2015 today?  It was for that that I wandered over to Euroa this morning.

Because I haven't been cycling long I registered for the 30km route, rather than the 80km or 130km routes.  It was a dirt cheap ride to enter and the registration area had a really friendly feel to it. It was even a pretty place to wait to start, just by the floodgates in the middle of town.

The 30km route was nice and flat and all bitumen aside from about 100metres of gravel. Basically, a recreational track.  I did feel a little underdressed: nearly everyone else was in Lycra with cycling jerseys; I was in running shorts with my short-sleeved Melbourne Marathon shirt. I can only deduce that runners are either dumber than cyclists or feel the cold less!

The route took us on a bit of a tour of the edge of the Strathbogie Ranges.  The countryside is rocky -

but every so often a hill would be wrapped in trees and I found myself singing 'Jerusalem'

And did those Feet, in ancient time,

Walk upon England's mountains green?

Runkeeper tells me the final distance was 26.6kms, which I did in 1:19:35. I'm pretty happy with that and had a great time.

The local Rotary club had a barbecue going when we finished and a steak sandwich was included in the entry fee (score!). I had mine and a bottle of water and got on the road for Michael's place, where the plan is to spend the afternoon stringing fencing wire.

I stopped in Violet Town proper as I passed St Attracta's church: it was open and I didn't think I'd get to Mass anywhere else today.

As it turned out the priest was rostered at another parish this morning (ergo, no Mass), so this was a worship and prayer service for a dozen or so of the local laity. I was happy to be there though: nobody seemed unhappy that I'd come in in my sports clothes, and afterwards a couple of people asked how I'd come to be there and so on. Honestly, it felt like a nice welcoming congregation, and I'll see if I can get a Sunday Mass in there at some time.

Which brings me to the present: I'm waiting for the others to show up, which may be a while as there seems to be a problem with a calf back at the farm.

Still, the sun's coming out and I'm in no hurry. Time for a cup of tea with honey and maybe some planking. And maybe googling up this piece of décor set into the wall of the house:

I'll update you on the balance of the day this evening.