Ah, Springtime in Texas!

Today was Ride Your Bike to Work Day. If you want to see a post about that, click some of the links in the sidebar, because this isn't one. Instead I'm getting caught up on my commutes from earlier in the week. (You see, I did nothing special for Bike to Work Day, other than ride my bike to work like I've done lots of other times.)

Monday I decided to ride my bike to work. There was a chance of afternoon thunderstorms, but we've heard that before and not gotten any bad weather. So I went for it.

You guessed it, a front rolled through Monday afternoon. I checked the weather radar and tried to beat the storm. As I left work, there as a pretty strong wind at my back and black clouds were boiling overhead. Then the angry drops started spattering. I rode on, trying to stay ahead of the worst of it. I wasn't exactly successful.

When the lightning started I bailed out and went to a shelter in a park. I thought about calling for a ride home but actually once the leading edge of the front blew through, the winds died down, the lightning subsided and I was left with a steady rain.



The rain eased up. I think at this point I was following the first wave of the storm, and the storm was moving faster than I was. At least the Trinity Trail MUP was empty so I didn't have to worry about traffic.



At this point, even though it was still raining, I was having a pretty good commute after my close call with the storm.



Before I got home, the rain picked up again and I was a wet noodle when I walked in the door.

But the weather is volatile in Texas during the spring, and when it's that bad one day, it could be perfect the next. In fact, it was. There was a great sunrise Tuesday morning. Here's a view over the Trinity River, the same MUP that looked so nasty the day before.



A pic of the bike on the trailhead.



Sunrise over the train tracks. (You're never far from train tracks in Fort Worth.)



After the rainy weather the afternoon before, this was great riding. And it would only get better. Other North Texas bloggers have posted their wildflower pics, now it's my turn. These pictures are actually quite close to my office. Most traffic goes north and east out of the office park, but I ride south along a country two-lane with fairly light traffic.











The MUP had more traffic Tuesday.



But of course there were more people out and about; it was beautiful.



I got off the main river trail at Overton Creek.



And headed south toward home on Overton Park West



Ah.... what a perfect commute! Right, Shadow?