“What a difference a week makes,” my friend Bob Hines said Saturday.
He made that statement as we rolled past the county park on Diamond Lake and headed towards Green Lake with a ride around Lake Koronis near Paynesville as our goal.
A week earlier, rain diminished similar plans – a situation I described in my previous post.

Bob's smile shows he's enjoying the ride and the weather.

This past Saturday, however, the sky was clear and the wind light.
It was the kind of day that makes Bob start talking about a daylong, century ride.
Although I usually enjoy these adventures (“I” meaning all of me except that portion of my body resting on a bike seat for seven to nine hours), I feel bad about leaving my wife, Sofia, behind.
She’s become more enthused about cycling this year thanks to the better weather and the new bike I got her for Christmas.
It has skinny tires that allow her to move a lot faster than her older bike’s fatter mountain bike tires. She rode 20 miles with me a couple weekends ago.
But she’s a sane person and doesn’t want to ride 100 miles in a day.
On this particular Saturday, however, Sofia was still fighting a determined cold and had to do some work at church.
As some serious cyclists have written in columns and on blogs, biking can be a selfish activity.
When your significant other, on the other hand, has plans and a cold, then riding can be about as guiltless as it can get.
I rode 97 miles Saturday and Bob did 101.