Subscribe in a reader

Saturday, July 12, 2008

 



Here's the preliminary pic to describe lots of my double metric yesterday. Started out about 6:30 without eating enough... but I tossed the rest of the bagel with cheese into the bag.
Carrie and I cruised down 900 (Duncan) South towards tolono and turned East at 800. At First Street she went north and I went South. I aimed for Pesotum from the East. I found some circles with dashes in 'em a la a bike route for somebody so I followed that out of Pesotum and yup, it aimed me towards Sadorus. I went West where it went East, getting a little warm... had some good Gatorade/tea in the bottle and a camelbak half full so I was nicely hydrated. However, heat simply and totally removes my ability to eat.
Got to Ivesdale ... thought about the Blarney Stone but decided to munch on my bagel instead adn drink. I'd seen a fellow on a bike as I pulled down Main Street ... as I munched he reappeared and asked if I knew where I was going... we chatted for a bit. It was Paul from Atwood who I suspect is the fellow who's been written up in the News-Gazette for some of his bicycling adventures, including getting creamed by a driver in the C-U area.
I aimed at Bement... saw INterstate and figured I could count on food... at a gas station there I got some "sweet and salty" trail mix but... no nuts... so I got nuts, too. Nice thing about nuts is you don't feel like you're eating, really... and I was a little boosted by the break and the a.c., but at 40-some miles I was telling myself to pay attention to the heat 'cause I was pretty far away from anything.
I'd planned a direct shot to Monticello on the east side of 105 ... but I think I was looking at a different chunk of map so it didn't happen. I went a few miles further west than I'd intended but operated on hope and vague memories that there weren't endless stretches of nothing... but I got to where "if there isn't a way north in the next three miles I'm turning around." Two miles later, trees and water, and North I aimed... and I was happy to see a slightly faded white arrow of the Peter Davis sort so I knew I was on the Allerton Park route ... and there was the MOnticello water tower and the roads were freshly paved and the wind was behind me.
Pulled into MOnticello and rode around the block three times before finding the Brown Bag ... yea, I was hot. Line was long so I could cool off and contemplate the menu :) Only ate 5/8 of that bagel... did I mention what happens to my appetite? and a bottle of Ginger Ale... poured the half-tea-half-lemonade into the Gatorade bottle and went outside and ... BLACK clouds to the west. Welp, whatever... they weren't close enough to merit bailing so I figured i might get wet.
SNork... I've seen the storms fall apart as they cross the county line on radar - I got to watch 'em just stay piled up behind me for pretty much the rest of the ride. White Heath and then ... yes, it was cooler and I felt lots better, and I still had CUAP brochures to pick up at Office Depot so I went there via Mahomet (but didn't pause at Casey's... some of the clouds were leaking over and I could see a *ferocious* cell to the north with some amazing cloud-to-ground lightning every four minutes or so). The miles down Market Street from Hensley SUCKED. Especially since I wanted to get to 126 and I was only at 100, I should have cut further east and then back at Olympian. Doing the "proper lane position" worked for everybody but the FedEx truck which was too close for comfort, but no, I don't like when cars are backin' up behind me ... lots more outgoing than incoming traffic.
It was drizzling at Office Depot but happliy not enough to get drivers doing the "oh, no, it's raining, so I can't be expected to see everything!" thing, and tho' it was 4:30 and there was more traffic, it wasn't too bad.
Now the sky was totally ominous to the South, though, so with 12 mile to go I didn't go six miles South but did things like drop off some brochures, take the long way to the grocery store for some Fat Tire "enlightend black ale" ... and take that pic in the Schnuck's parking lot because the storm (of course!) stayed to the South.
Not so this a.m. as storms rocked on in... and yea, I better get out to Parkland if I"m gonna do that before the skies liven up again.
COuld I do 300 K? It wouldn't have been fun this time. P'raps with company, more food earlier, cooler weather ... oh, and the blue bike which I am pretty sure would be 2 mph faster all around.

Comments:
Nice ride description, weather on the prairie in the summer is like rolling craps, who knows.
 
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
Grateful for you writing this blog.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?