March is the month where 300 or 350 miles farther south makes a huge difference in temperature ( also leaves, also dogwoods, also azaleas and redbuds and and and). Since attendance in NC was required for a 'rents visit and other shenanigans, let's take the bike and do some flat riding ... But oh yeah, wind. Forgot how ... exposed ... some, ok, most, stretches of roads are. Not much in the way of hills other than overpasses at 12 and 23.5 but there was enough wind from the WSW to keep the legs working. Legs started complaining at about 20 and so the last third was maybe not as great as it could have been but over all, really a good ride. Even got some unexpected dirt from 9.5 to 11.3 ... well maybe sand is more accurate. Mostly it was hardpacked but there were some spots where way fatter tires woulda been better. Maybe that's what they do down here for MTB riding... Contact points were tired at the end; this was exactly the right number of miles. More would have been bad.