Gritty Shins.

Interesting title, thankfully I didn't misspell it. Erich and I hit up a city loop followed by a lap around Salem Lake. At the tail end of the city loop, my blinkie had had enough jostling about, so it jumped ship. It suffered a rather inhumane end as it was hit by a car going the opposite direction. Game Over. Through Old Salem.

When we got to the greenway to head out to Salem Lake, it quickly became apparent that the bugs were having tons of fun flying into our eyes. There must have been a hatch going in the creek because it was like riding through a snow storm. Curtis had made mention of this in the past having taken his wife on a ride there in an even such as this. Needless to say, he was unable to get her to repeat the ride. After having made it through the gauntlet of gnats, the rabbits started coming out of the woodwork. Ridiculous, you'd have thought they were protecting the Holy Grail with how they were throwing themselves at Erich's wheel.

Once we got to the lake, the bug and bunny problem stopped, but alas, a theme had begun. Far be it from the gods of cycling to stop this theme, the final plague came in the form of frogs. There were tons of them, not quite as numerous as the gnats, but more numerous than the rabbits. I was witness to one giving itself in the fight to defeat Erich. Erich's wake of destruction on the frog was a tough sight to see, but you don't mess with "The Wrench" and hope to come out looking like you did. By the time we made it back to pavement I was expecting to have yetis and chupacabras start after us next. At one point I thought about uttering, "we can't stop here, this is bat country," but I didn't want to give Erich pause.

We rode back up through downtown, passing Krankies and all the downtown restaurants. On back to chez Grant and E anounces...I'm baking cookies tonight. Awesome.