I don’t care what the calendar says, yesterday was the first day I really felt that Spring had arrived.

Oh, there have been days that have hinted at Spring, days that have teased and flirted with Spring, and days that have promised but not quite delivered.

Yesterday delivered. Sure, with temperatures topping out in the low 50’s, it was rather cool, but with a sunny, cloudless sky, and mild wind, it was a good day for a bike ride.

And ride I did.

I rode over to a friend’s house, and we took off for a three-hour spin, heading west on 127th from his place in Overland Park, crossing over I-35 and taking advantage of a few miles of bike lanes before heading north on Parker. At College Blvd we aimed the wheels westward for a few more miles, looping around the giant Honeywell plant at the K-7/K-10 interchange, eventually hitting the convenience store at Cedar Creek.

After a short break, we set off again, rerouting on the fly to get around some road construction, and ended up east-bound on Prairie Start Parkway. We took that as far as Woodland, then Woodland north to Johnson Drive. There was one big downhill on Woodland, followed by some minor hills before we settled into the largely flat roads along Mill Creek.

At Johnson Drive we headed east again, crossing the creek and taking a short break at the ballfields before tackling the two big hills on Johnson Drive. This was only my second time on these hills, but they didn’t seem as imposing as the first time I rode them, and soon enough they were done, and we’d turned south on Renner.

Renner has some good-sized rollers, and one long curving hill as it passes over I-435, where I looked down at my odometer and found I’d done 45 miles, and was still feeling fine.

After another five miles of Renner rollers, we took a short jaunt on Kansas City Road before finding ourselves back on 127th. I split off from my friend at Pflumm, and headed south with the early rush-hour traffic. There were a few places where traffic got a little hectic, but everyone was pretty well-behaved, and I was soon back in the country.

At Heritage Park I took a short break and did one of my favorite things, just sitting quietly and listening to the near silence, watching some birds playing in a nearby tree. The peace was short-lived, as cars on the road soon disturbed the moment, and so I continued on, southward for a few more miles, then westward and home.

I ended up with just over 63 miles — a nice little metric century!

And today, of course, the weather has changed again. We have the warmth, and we have the sun, but today (and tomorrow) bring strong and gusty winds. I’ll probably still go out for at least a short ride, but it’ll be hard to beat yesterday’s almost perfect ride.

At least until this weekend, when the annual Spring Classic takes place, hopefully with cooperative weather!