A Saturday Morning Long Ride

How strange to say 'long ride' instead of 'long run'. My hip still isn't ready for a long run, so there is not a Java Adventure Run Report, but I can do a brief Long Ride Report.
My other running partner, Dave, has the exact same hip issue that I have. His kept him from running the Green Bay Marathon, as it flared up after the Nashville Marathon a month prior. He blames the hip injury on a mishap while running with his Collie, Simba, but I think it has more to do with running a Marathon with basically no training. I joke that you know your training has been less-than-stellar when the tapering phase of your training means you have to increase your mileage. That was pretty much the case for Nashville with Dave. So the two of us headed out on our bicycles this morning to give the hips a break.
We planned on biking to the nearby State Park. Chris gave me the route that would take us there and back in about thirty miles. Had I managed to stick to that route we would have seen the State Park. But, we......got lost. Now, there are pros and cons to getting lost on a long ride. You may, as we did, come across some very beautiful and interesting sights. We actually got to see an old farmer tilling his field with machinery being pulled by two beautiful horses instead of a tractor... We saw fields of beets and carrots and corn.... We saw amazing wildflowers... Dragonflies.... But then things got scary when we entered into the Land of the Roadkill. (have someone hum scary horror film music to you while you read this) Dave and I went a long way past the small county highway that we were supposed to take, which would have led us to the quiet road into the State Park. Instead, we had to ride for miles on a very busy state highway. The wind was blowing at a fierce 20+ miles per hour, howling in our ears. Automobiles kicked up gravel and mammoth insects hit us in the face. Semi trucks spewed toxic fumes into the air...and into our lungs. ...and then we passed a headless crow...and a entrail-showing opossum....a raccoon who stared at us through dead, glassy eyes....an unidentifiable rodent.... What was causing this carnage? Were we to be the next victims?
(you can tell them to stop humming)
By the time we found the road into the park, we were well past what should have been our halfway point and opted to skip the park and head for home. The park is one huge hill. This route had been hilly enough, on the way there. We had to ride into the wind (did I mention that it was 20 mph with even bigger gusts?) for most of the rest of the way, so it seemed like the wise choice.
In the end we rode 28.5 miles. I wanted to ride around the neighborhood a little, in order to hit 30 miles. Dave told me that I'm compulsive. ......he's a medical professional and he's just now figuring this out???
Took and ice bath, had some lunch, and put the girls down for naps. The house is quiet. It's been a good day.