April 18: A Sliver of Fun in the Sun
Bring on the leather chaps and summer riding gloves! With temperatures forecasted to hit the mid-seventies and an errand to run in Albany, I took some personal leave from the high school to sneak in a sliver of fun in the sun before heading home to work with tutoring clients this evening.
With my last period class in capable hands, I headed south this afternoon, giddy at the prospect of having a few extra hours on the bike in such glorious weather. Although I had hired a substitute teacher, I couldn’t help feeling a little bit like I was playing hooky, knowing that I was enjoying such deliciously bright sun, blue skies, and warm temperatures while others were toiling away at work.
After a quick errand in Albany, I headed back north along country backroads, enjoying the bucolic rural surroundings as I passed cows, horses, donkeys, and llamas grazing in their fields, cherry trees bursting with magnificent pops of pink and white blossoms, and giant oak trees reaching their grey and brown gnarly limbs out over tractors and farmhouses.
The jagged snowy peaks of Mount Hood gleamed in the distance, providing a beautiful backdrop of white against the lush green fields in the foreground, providing a reminder of the winter past and the summer to come.
Passing through Stayton and Silverton, I continued north on the Marquam-Canby Road. With almost no traffic in sight, I leaned into the curves and sped up and over rolling hills, appreciating the neat rows of green shoots beginning to sprout in the fertile brown fields around me and row upon row of nut and fruit trees bearing new spring foliage in dozens of orchards along my way.
Turning right on highway 99 East and rounding a bend in the Willamette River, I was hit with a spectacular view of the river’s silvery-blue waters sparkling in the afternoon light. After winding my way along the shoreline, I passed over the Oregon City Arch Bridge and arrived in West Linn, barely making it home in time to take off my chaps before my first client of the day rang the doorbell. Woohoo!
