Back in the saddle

I got my first bike ride of the season in on Tuesday. Nothing major. About 10 miles around Hutchins Lake.

The lake is still frozen over, but I didn't get the normal cold blast off the surface as I passed. The strong winds were out of the southwest, so, being on the south side of the lake, the warmth stayed in the breeze.

The ice reminded me of early spring riding south of Buffalo. There's an ice boom on Lake Erie before it forms the Niagara River and heads into the Falls. This net across the lake stops huge chunks of ice from flowing into the hydroelectric generators. So, where I grew up, the air stayed colder longer than those who were just a few miles away. You can actually see the line of ice on the lake: One side is clear blue open water; the other, gnarled chunks of ice.

Anyway, as I'd ride close to the lake, I'd hit a wall of cold air because of the wind off the ice jam. It wasn't far away. Just down Orchard Avenue a couple of blocks and -- BAM -- you hit a drop of like 10-plus degrees.

Well, none of that here. I had a challenging headwind in the first half of the ride, but a great push the rest of the way home.

What I notice most about spring rides, besides the melting snow forming impromptu rivers, is the litter. Man, we are pigs. Food wrappers, cups, tires, bags all over the sides of roads and in the trees.

About the above picture: I took the shot above of my bike in my garage. I added a bag on my handlebars and removed the wrack and bag from the back of the bike. I needed something I could put a map in! I spent too many miles last summer wandering the streets of South Haven trying to figure out where the heck I was!

Book break

I finished a book one of my wife's coworkers passed on. He knows I'm a fan of World War II armor, so he shared the book, "The Trail of the Fox" by David Irving (1977).

It's a good read about Rommel. I liked how the author inserted first-person graphs about his interviews with Rommel associates and how he (the author) found some of the documents he used as sources.

The book was not sympathetic to Rommel, and seemed to paint him as a selfish, glory-seeking man who understood tactics but not the big picture.

Another good book about Rommel is "Knight's Cross" by David Fraser. I've read a few Fraser works -- he's a detailed writer -- an a bit more objective than Irving.

Also, I read "The Rommel Papers," a collection of letters and other writings from Rommel edited by B.H. Liddell-Han. It's a good insight into his day-to-day and personal thoughts.

Of course, I enjoyed Rommel's own work, "Infantry Attacks." I follow his mantra from the work: Sweat saves blood!

I'd recommend reading Guderian's "Achtung Panzer!" as a companion to Rommel's work.

Thought: From the movie "Kelly's Heroes," as Oddball explains why he bought a Tiger tank from an SS officer: "It's a mother beautiful tank!"