11-1-87 It’s ironic that I rode 77.12 miles on my bike today, because my first thoughts this morning were that I’d have to cancel or postpone my weekly bike ride. A massive storm moved through Tucson in the early morning hours. Rain pelted down, winds blew, and the temperature dropped. I awoke several times. Although I have a streak of sixteen consecutive Sunday rides, and although I’ve ridden in rain before, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do it again today. But lo and behold, the sky cleared up by noon and by two o’clock I was on my way toward the interstate [10] on Speedway Boulevard. Luckily, I avoided rain all day, except for a few sprinkles here and there. Dark clouds loomed overhead and I could see a storm in the distance, but it didn’t affect me. I rode to the interstate, to Prince Road, to within ten miles of Picacho Peak, and then back. My gross-average speed was a disappointing 14.81 miles per hour. I attribute it to high winds on the ride out, then no wind at all on the ride home. It was also quite humid: fifty-nine percent at five o’clock. I’m not used to that much humidity. [The same is true here in North Texas.]

I badly miscalculated the time of sunset, which caused me to ride over twenty miles in the darkness. For some reason I thought it got dark at 6:30, but, as it turns out, the sun sets at 5:33. When this occurred, I had just turned from Thornydale Road to Ina Road, on the northwest side of town. I live on the far east side. But I didn’t panic. My bike has no lights and only a couple of small pedal reflectors, so I made my way to Oracle Road, which I took to Speedway Boulevard, and then followed Speedway home. Fortunately, I made it safely. The danger is not so much that I’ll fail to see a car, but that the drivers of cars will fail to see me. It’s particularly dangerous to go through intersections when vehicles are about to turn left, and I also worried about drivers turning into the street from private lots. I learned my lesson. If it says in the newspaper that sunset occurs at 5:33, I shouldn’t say to myself “Well, it won’t really get dark”. I should believe and act upon what I read.