Friday Dinner, Saturday Ride

The only bright sunny day, in seemingly forever, was Friday. We had invited two couples from Gruppo 1 for dinner so I was busy shopping for the ingredients, food preparations and cooking, all with the help of Ms. E. For a change of pace dinner was going to be paella. No riding in the cards for me.

The paella came out great (seen here simmering about 25 minutes before it was ready).

We had a nice wine to go along with it, a "Ponte Pietra" based on merlot and corvina grapes. It's produced in the nearby small town of Monteforte d' Alpone by a neighbor's sister. For dessert we had a "torta di mele" (apple cake) prepared by Daniela.

We dined and wined late into the early morning. L-R: Juliana, Attilio (he really liked the green tabasco sauce from the USA), Daniela, Beppe, and me.

Getting up early Saturday morning wasn't easy. Especially, looking out the window and seeing that we were back to cloud cover and fog. It's odd that sometimes when you think you are going to suffer on a ride you actually put in a good ride. Which was the case this moring when "Dodi" took the lead at the front and just turned a big gear and motored all the way to Lake Garda.

Nice ride.

19 January 2008

Total time: 3 hr 13 min

HR avg: 126

HR max: 176