CHICAGO (Dec. 5, 2004) - It's a delicate battle, between blocking the 20-degree air blowing into your helmet at 60 MPH and cracking your visor just enough to evaporate the fog that makes it much more difficult to avoid the black ice and pot holes on a pre-dawn December ride.
As your humble correspondent and neighbor Jeff Wagner ride out of our Aurora, Ill., subdivision on our way to the annual Chicagoland Toys for Tots parade, it's a battle we fight incessantly. Unfortunately, we're losing.
"This is [freaking] nuts," Jeff yells by the second stop light off of Ogden on 75th street, still way back in Naperville and a long way from Chicago.
Jeff didn't wear insulated gloves for the trip, and even though he bought another layer of hand protection at the next stop -- likely joining hundreds of other riders who no doubt make the first Sunday in December the largest day for glove and ski cap sales at Chicagoland gas stations -- Jeff insists we stay off 55 and ride the slower backroads into Summit, where we'll meet up with Mike Keefe, the third rider in our group.
We stop once more for coffee and well wishes from the gas station attendant before we find our way to Archer Ave. and Mike's place.
We then follow Mike from Summit to the Dan Ryan Woods where the real ride begins. The sun is starting to shine, and the weather is suddenly bearable.
Like most battles, this one was won with persistence. And why not? If Santa can hop a few hundred million rooftops every Christmas Eve, what's a few dozen miles on a cold December morning?
