Northern Illinois Day 1 - Muscatine to Geneseo

Here we go! The first annual Northern Illinois Bike Ride, from RAGBRAI to Chicago!

This is a supported tour. Like RAGBRAI, the organizers haul your stuff from overnight town to overnight town. Unlike the Des Moines Cycle Club, the organizers expect your bags to be on the trailer at 5:45 AM.

So here is a sight probably never before recorded: Laura awake and ready to go before 6:00 am.


It is a very very good idea to get going early, because it's insanely hot, with highs near 100 and the heat index is around 110 degrees.

Here's the state line, at the Mississippi River.


And here's Laura at the sign welcoming us to Illinois.


I wonder if our first stop town is representative of Illinois. The town is Buffalo Prairie. We stopped at what appears to be the only business in town, Reason's Meats, a butcher. I think they render.


Outside next door, there is a demolition derby car to lean on.


Inside they have tons of tasty pig ears and knuckles for the pup.


They also have jerky from about 10 different kinds of animals.

We got in to Geneseo just after 11:00, before the hot hot heat really set in. Downtown Geneseo is from around 1900, and it is very picturesque. Here is where we had lunch.


After lunch, we beat the heat by spending the afternoon at the pool.


After our swim, Laura went bowling, and I went out and had a big slab. Life is good.

Here's the route. It was flat and easy, except for the heat.

RAGBRAI Day 7 - Coralville to Muscatine

End of the Road. That's the Mississippi River.



It's pretty exciting to ride into town at the end of RAGBRAI. All the people are sitting out on their lawns like it's a parade and they cheer you.



I saw a funny spectacle at the traditional Mississippi River wheel dip. The wheel dip is on a fairly steep boat ramp. In the water it is very slick and slimy with algae. Dude comes up on a trike to dip his front wheels.

The important detail to know is that on a trike the brakes are on the front wheels and there is no brake on the rear wheel.

So as soon as his front wheels hit the algae, he slides right into the river.

Now for the sad part where RAGBRAI is over and everyone leaves. Here is the parking lot at Muscatine Community College, where the groups with box trucks load up the people and bags onto tour buses and put the bikes in the trucks and head back to Des Moines. (By the way, at Muscatine Community College, you can major in "Feed and Fertilizer Marketing". I am not making this up.)



Jim headed back to Chicago, and Laura and I are continuing on to Chicago on the Bicycle Illinois' first annual "Northern Illinois Tour". The Northern Illinois tour conveniently starts from Muscatine Community College, so we didn't have to go anywhere, which was nice because the student center was highly air conditioned and it was in the upper 90s with a heat index of something like 112 degrees.

HUMAN HOG SECTION

I didn't get much sleep last night, because the dim bulbs in Coralville thought it would be a great idea to park RVs on the road right next to where they had us camp.

Bedtime comes and all the RVs are running their noisy generators and fouling the air with diesel smoke so they can sit their human hog butts inside in the air conditioning and watch satellite TV.

I decided to see if I could get them to shut down the generators so the hundreds of tent campers could sleep.

The first RV on our block shut down. This may be because they had some kids in their party sleeping in a tent next to the RV.

Here's the second RV. It was built on a tour bus, and it had a very, very loud generator. I bang on the door. An old man comes to the door. I ask him when he plans to turn off his generator. He says "I don't want to get heat stroke." I told him his noise was making it hard for me to sleep in my tent. He said you should have set up somewhere else. I pointed out to him that he wasn't there when I set up. So when are you going to shut down the generator? He shut his door in my face and I heard the lock click. He ran his generator all night.




This human hog containment facility had a bike chained to the front wheel. The RAGBRAI sign on the bike says it belongs to Art Knapp of Santa Barbara, California. It also had a sign in the front window advertising http://www.photobuz.com. At the photobuz site, they have a contact e-mail address, which is where the link to this blog is being sent in a few minutes.

On to the next human hog containment facility. On this one, I came upon a family consisting of a couple and two teenage/twentyish kids leaving the RV. I asked them when they plan to turn off the generator. The father figure says "We're going to run it pretty late." I told him his generator was making it very difficult for me to sleep. I asked him what made him think it why it was OK for him to disrupt all the tent campers nearby so he could watch TV. His response was "I paid the money." This just infuriated me. I went on a tirade that because he paid some money does not entitle him to make a lot of noise to disrupt everyone else's sleep and pollute the air for everyone else with diesel exhaust.

I wound up bellowing "HUMAN HOG" at the top of my lungs every time he opened his mouth to speak. Eventually he and his porcine spawn went inside. They ran their generator all night.



When I hit the road at 7:00 the next morning, none of them had emerged, which is too bad, because I wanted to ask them how well they slept.

Here is the route for the last day of RAGBRAI. It was flat and easy, I was at the river before 10:00.

RAGBRAI Day 6 - Coralville Update

It sure was hot in Coralville today.

They have a real nice pool just a short walk from camp.



This is a very fancy pool. They have this contraption that spews water all over when you twist various valves on the bottom. The valves are set at the height of a six year old.



I think normally there aren't a bunch of sweaty bikers sitting under it.

But the most amazing thing is this water slide. They have a regular water slide (purple on the right), but the orange thing is the "Space Bowl".



It's really a toilet bowl. You slide down the intestine (orange tube) and then swirl around bowl a couple times then you get flushed out the bottom. This thing is absurdly popular. The wait was about a half hour.

I called it the toilet bowl while describing it on the phone to Laura, who was on her way to the mall on the shuttle bus to see movies. Some kid overheard and a couple minutes later all the kids were calling it the toilet bowl. Maybe this is the RAGBRAI legacy for Coralville.

The pool is next to the beer garden. I was sitting and reading a book. I'd plunge in the pool every 20 minutes to cool off. I got to hear all the bands play. The bands were remarkably good. They just had an amazing Salsa band doing Afro-Cuban jazz numbers. I think Coralville is a posh suburb of somewhere, because this is way different than Van Halen covers next to the swine barn. Also the food stands had a wide variety of different foods, many of which did not involve pork.

I had brats anyway.

RAGBRAI Day 6 - Marengo to Coralville

Hello from Coralville!

Today was a short and easy day, only 48 miles and often flat. I took my first stop, which was just a Kybo break in Harwood. Here is the whole town of Harwood.



Despite the fact that the town consists of a house, church, and church hall, they had live entertainment! At 8 in the morning! These guys were really good. I heard them riding out, and I thought it was a Stanley Brothers CD, but it was a live band. They were very old-time bluegrass.



I held off eating until Pastafari at mile 38.



Pastafari is a RAGBRAI institution. They set up a pasta stand in a cornfield and blast reggae. They have nothing to do with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I got in to camp at 10:00, before the heat set in. I snagged an excellent spot which will be in the shade pretty soon.



Last night about 7:00 we have a bunch of hot air balloons fly over the fairgrounds.



Here they are passing over the beer garden.



It turns out our little mud pit beer garden was not the main beer garden, but a special auxilliary beer garden just for us. I felt bad for the band, because nobody who wasn't a family member wanted to stand in the mud pit to watch them play Van Halen covers. You can see the whole extent of the crowd there.

Anyway, here's the quick and easy route for today.

RAGBRAI Day 5 - Newton to Marengo

Today was "century day" where there is an optional loop you can ride to make the day's total distance 100 miles. Regular is 77 miles. I decided for fun to see how fast I could ride the century in clock time instead of pedal time.

The only time I stopped was at mile 60 to refill water, which I made into Cytomax. All I had to eat was 4 goo packs and 4 scoops of cytomax and a bagel with peanut butter before I left.

The first part of the ride was pretty hilly, and the loop was hilly too. The loop went out in the middle of nowhere to some art. Since I was on a mission, I did not stop and photograph the art, but I should have. It was a 60 foot tower with three blades of metal wagon wheels welded together. I don't know what it's for, or why it's there, because there's nothing else there for miles around. It must be art.

The last 25 miles or so were totally flat. The hammer was in the down position. There was no wind, and it was mid 80s and very humid. I was looking at finishing in under 6 hours, and I was happily cruising along at 21-22 mph.

Then this double pace line comes up on me and leaders say something like "We don't have and recumbents, hop on." Which I thought was a snark remark implying I couldn't keep up. So I hopped in. They were doing about 24 mph. It seems the same two guys had been leading this for the last 15 miles or so. Very impressive.

In no time we were in Marengo. They were saying "That the fastest century I've ever done." Well, GPS says otherwise. It was only 90 miles. I feel robbed. Century day should be an actual century. I did 91 miles in 5:14 clock time and 5:09 pedal time. I feel robbed.

So this is quite a setup in Marengo. We're camped at the fairgrounds, and I swear everything you could possibly need is less than 100 yards away.

Here's my tent.



That orange fence behind it surrounding a mud pit is the beer garden. I don't think I'll be sleeping much tonight, but the spectacle should be fun to watch.

Looking the other way from the exact same spot are the showers.



Just to the left is food. The grey building is selling brats with kraut. The are delicious. The tan building is the Cattlemans' association. They are having a steak and potato dinner tonight, and a pancake breakfast tomorrow.



To the left of that are the bike mechanics and vendors, and the kybos.



Is this the most incredible score for a camping area or what? Usually you have to take a shuttle bus to the food and the beer garden.

Here's the map for today's "century."

RAGBRAI Day 4 - Waukee to Newton

Hello from Newton Iowa, home of a brand new NASCAR race track! Everything here has a NASCAR theme. There are little checkered flags lining the route into town. (There were tiki torches yesterday at the Wau-Kee-Kee Hula Party).

We had incredible thunderstorms all last night. They got 2 1/2 inches of rain in Waukee. I was safe and dry in my tent. Jim was at the beer garden when they came, and he reported on the impromptu naked slip-and-slide that spontaneously erupted. He was save and dry on his cot above the small pond on the floor of his tent. Laura fled to the emergency shelter, which was the middle school we were camped next to. It was a late start this morning since Laura was unable to hear the ritual "DES MOINES CYCLE CLUB YOUR BURNING DAYLIGHT". It took us an hour to find her where she was sleeping away under some bleachers.

Also lightning hit our camp. It struck the engine of the box truck of the group next to us and destroyed the engine. They had to go and get a new truck.

I started the day with a tasty breakfast at Mr. Pork Chop.



See the pork chops grilling? YUM!

Mr. Pork Chop was at mile 30, and the whole ride was 70 miles and pretty flat. 20 miles out I mixed up some Cytomax, and I got in here at Newton at noon. Before going to camp, I stopped by the center of town for some tacos



and strawberry pie.



Then I rode to the camp area and set up.



So today's big news at camp was the arrival of Lance Armstrong. He was supposed to ride tomorrow, but the story was that he rode some today on the spur of the moment. I never passed him, so I figured it was just a rumor.

It turns out he did ride, but it was later in the afternoon. There is a lot of excessive hype about Lance Armstrong coming to RAGBRAI, and a lot of jokes as backlash. Like the farmer who attached an old bike to the front of his manure spreader and put a stuffed dummy on it wearing a yellow bike jersey that said "Lance" on it.

After Jim got in, we went into town for some dinner. We took the shuttle bus (a school bus, today) into town and went to the Methodist? Church for dinner. Some church. Everyone said the one with the green dome.


I about had the volunteer who gives out directions on the school bus convinced the Methodists bought out the Muslims and it used to be a mosque, but Jim thought it would be a bad idea if she spread this misinformation to hundreds of RAGBRAI riders all night and straightened her out.

Dinner was excellent! Beef and homemade noodles, with green beens and two choices of homemade salad to go with.


And look at the top of the picture. That would be goosberry pie! You don't get goosberry pie every day.

After I posted last night, a DMCC member rode up to visit with her three year old in this amazing rig.



I had to grill her about hauling kids in trailers. It turns out she had a recumbent before she got the trike, and she said it's much, much easier to haul the trailer on a trike. She said the super-low gearing on the trike is incredibly helpful, and it's very nice that the trike is wider than the trailer. She said the company that made the trailer is out of business, but the hitch on it broke and she replaced it with a Burley hitch.

She also said she started hauling her son around when he was six weeks old, by mounting a car seat inside the trailer.

Stick-on Sandal Update

I'm wearing them right now. I peeled them off last night with some effort. I left them out in the rain, figuring the rain would clean them. In the morning they would not stick at all. It turns out that was because they were wet. I threw them in my bag, and when I put them on this afternoon they stuck just fine.

But they got wet again when I was cleaning out my Camelback bladder, and stopped sticking. I washed them off and set them in the sun to dry while I went to take a shower while wearing my old flip-flops. When I got back, they were hot and dry and super sticky.

So they seem to work just fine unless they are wet. I walked about a mile around Newton while wearing them.

Also, at least six women asked me about them because they wanted some. I am popular with the ladies when I am wearing stick-on sandals. I am so cool.

Here is today's route, which was flat and easy except for the 15% climb going out of Colfax.

RAGBRAI Day 3 - Audubon to Waukee

Today I did not start the day at Mr. Pork Chop, because there was a good-sized town two miles farther along. That town was Guthrie Center. At 8:30 they had the beer garden going, which included liquor, and the guy on the PA was encouraging folks to have shots. Nobody who is going to drink shots on RAGBRAI would be awake at that hour, so he wasn't getting any takers.

Guthrie Center also had a fake Mr. Pork Chop bus! This is a mean pig bus, not a nice one like Mr. Pork Chop.



I got a black bean burrito and a smoothie from Garden of Eden, who are in one of those booths there.



I got to Waukee around 11:30. At Waukee, they are having a Wau-kee-kee Hula Party, so I got a lei on the way in from a cute teenage girl.

It was a pretty easy ride today, but I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so I was kind of plodding along. The wind was a crosswind, and only the first half was hilly. My head is stuffed up and I was feeling a little feverish. I bought some aspirin in Guthrie Center, but I haven't taken any yet.

We are set up next to the middle school. It's supposed to rain tonight, maybe I will be sheltered next to the building. That's also the flattest available space.



After I got a shower I went over to the very extensive vendor area. Waukee is a suburb of Des Moines, and they have abundant food and interesting vendor booths.



Here for example is an anti-war activist booth that have done amazing things to a Honda Element just like Debra's!



And most amazing is this local Iowa business who has invented stick-on flip-flops!



They really work!



I bought them from the girl above wearing a coconut bra. She also lei'd me. Now I don't just go and spend $10 on any ridiculous product pitched by a cute girl in a coconut bra. I asked her lots of questions first. She says they come right off, and they are guaranteed to stick back on for a whole year if you wash them off first.

I also asked her if I could wear them to work, or if I would get in trouble. She said "No problem! We wear them to work all the time!"

I am so damn cool.



So I'm hanging out inside the middle school next to the volunteers who are recharging cell phones (awesome idea!) while wearing my stick-on flip flops and enjoying the air conditioning and open wifi connection. My feet feel like they are stuck in fly paper. But it's worth it to be so cool.

Back in Audubon, I went back into town with Jim in the evening to eat more and hang out in the beer garden. In the middle of the beer garden was a nice statue of John James Audubon.



Being an admirer of John James Audubon, I quickly spotted many inaccuracies and anachonisms in this statue. None of them are as bad as making Babe Ruth with wrong handed glove, but still, the sculptor should know that Audubon himself did not paint the backgrounds in his paintings, he sketched them lightly and had an assistant finish them at his engraver's, so there should not be a completed background on the canvas while he works on the Ring-necked Duck. Also, Audubon shot most of the birds he painted there should be a dead duck nearby wired into a lifelike position.

Here is the route for today. Hard at the start, easy at the end. All morning there was lightning ahead of us, but we had no rain.

RAGBRAI Day 2 - Ida Grove to Audubon

Today was absolutely grueling. 78 miles, 4000 feet of climb, and stiff headwinds.

But it was a great day because it started with Mr. Pork Chop.



He was set up about 30 miles in, and the pork chop lasted another 30 miles or so to Manning, the last town before the finish.

They had lots of stuff set up in the town park in Manning, including delicious smoothies, and the Brats from the volunteer fire department.



Everyone in Manning said the route smooths out from there to Audubon. This is hogwash, it was hilly the whole way. In fact, there was a 10% grade about 5 miles outside of town.

these hills meant I needed to eat more, at the incredible Garden of Eden smoothie stand 10 miles or so later. Today was blueberry.



I got in to Audubon about 1:00 and set up camp.



Audubon is most proud of Albert the Bull, who is anatomically correct. I understand his anatomical correctness was freshly repainted for RAGBRAI to remove the graffiti.



They like Albert so much they painted giant cow tracks on the street the whole way trhough town to Albert.

The DMCC camp site is about a quarter mile from Albert. Downtown is about a mile away. Audubon is fairly big. I went to check out downtown to see what is in store for us. You have to take a trolley downtown, which is a trailer pulled by a big tractor. Suggested donation is $2.



So here is what we have: challenging contests. (Click picture to enlarge.)



And the climax is "Audubon Idol." I wish I had my banjo and was capable of composing a tragic song about a little boy who was eaten by a combine.



They also had abundant food. I went for a ton of ribs from "Pink Floyds". Pork is always better if it comes from an establishment which is painted pink.



It remains to be seen whether the competative spectacles of Audubon can compete with the medievality of Ida Grove.

The Tubador was in both places. Here's a picture of him yesterday in Ida Grove. When I took this he was playing "Crazy", which he seamlessly segued into "Crying Time" by Buck Owens.



Today he was in a traditional jazz mode, doing "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey." The Tubador is amazing.

Here's the brutal route for today. The wind was from the south.

RAGBRAI Day 1 - Sergeant Bluff to Ida Grove

Day 1 was something! Only 54 miles, but very hilly! The hills were only a couple hundred feet, but they were pretty steep and very plentiful. Nonetheless, I hammered it and was in to camp around 10:00 AM before it got hot. I've been spending the afternoon making the RAGBRAI 2006 portion of my web site.

The best way to start the day at RAGBRAI is with Mr. Pork Chop.



There is no line for Mr. Pork Chop at 8:00 in the morning. And if you ride straight through to Mr. Pork Chop without stopping, you get ahead of the crowd and can avoid long lines for the rest of the day. Mr. Pork Chop usually sets up about 30 miles in, but today it was only 25 miles because it was a short day.

The other classic food stop is the Garden of Eden Smoothie Stand. This is the view from the line.



I had a peach smoothie and I was a tower of power for the remaining 18 miles. It flattened out and I was sailing along at 23-24 mph. I love Garden of Eden.

Here I am all set up at camp and it's only 10:30.



Ida Grove, population around 2100, is something. It seems some rich dude moved to town several decades ago and started a bunch of local businesses. However, the rich dude had a thing with castles. His own home has turrets and a moat with a drawbridge. He also made all the businesses he invested in build castles. So Ida Grove is full of castles. As you might expect, Ida Grove has been on the RAGBRAI route many times previously.



So of course all the people at the RAGBRAI information booth are dressed up like the Renaissance Festival.



Here is the best castle building. It's the skating rink.



Here is the inside of the skating rink. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's amazing. I asked the folks who run it if people get married in here. They said "Sure! We do all kinds of events!"



I'm now getting kicked out of the Iowa Telecom trailer. Here's the route for today.

Riding to RAGBRAI - Blair, Nebraska to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa

Here is the story of our ride to RAGBRAI, from Blair, Nebraska to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, the official start town.

Here's Jim and Laura in front of the art at the Super 8 in Blair. It's a brass duck!



There's not much heading north from Blair. We got hungry in 20 miles in Tekemah, and settled for food from the gas station.



The ride was totally flat. It's all floodplain of the Missouri River. Here is Jim and Laura climbing one of the few hills of the day into Decatur, NE.



At Decatur, we crossed into Iowa.



The first town in Iowa is Onawa, which was the start town two years ago. I don't actually remember anything in Onawa from then, except a field with a fence behind it where I camped. But as it happens, there is a bar with decent food. And it had bikes in front of it loaded for touring, so we had to stop here for lunch.



The bikes belonged to a couple from Denver who were also riding to RAGBRAI. They had come over 600 miles with 100 degree heat, the gruelling Sand Hills of Nebraska, and headwinds. They were tougher than us.

While we were eating, a school bus decorated for RAGBRAI turned up. A whole bunch of people got out of the bus with beers in there hand and came into the bar. It seems our Colorado couple were part of the team with the bus. The RAGBRAI party begins.



We rode on to Sergeant Bluff, found the Des Moines Cycle Club site (we are members...) and set up camp. This was a great site, we were really close to showers, two spaghetti dinners, and Kybos with no lines.



Here's the route for today. Flat as could be, but with a wind from the north.

Riding to Ragbrai - Omaha to Blair, Nebraska

The RAGBRAI experience is underway!

Here is the intrepid Baltimore "Team Torque" delegation ready to set out from the baggage claim area in the Omaha airport. Left to right, Jim, Drew, Laura.



As is normal, we assembled our bikes on the spot. This makes for fun conversations with the other air travelers.

"Are you guys doing RAGBRAI? So are we!"
"Where are you bikes? What do you mean you're driving to the start town?"



This is what we left behind in Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington International Longest Name In The World Airport.



Click to zoom. Note the houses on the sides have increased curbside appeal because there are shrubberies planted in front of the garage doors. I can't decide whether they photoshopped them in, or whether they are real shrubberies, or which one is dumber.

Here in Nebraska, the shrubberies are where they belong, and pizza for dinner is Godfather's. Godfathers tastes just like Ledo's.



After an enjoyable 28 mile ride to Blair, we arrived at our room in the Super 8. I have fond memories of Blair from going to RAGBRAI last year. Last year I camped in the municipal park next to the train tracks for $4.00, which included a hot shower in the cinder block comfort facility. Despite my rhapsodizing about the municipal park, even though I described it in as similar to the pumpkin patch from which the Great Pumpkin rises in Charlie Brown (the most sincere municipal park I've ever visited in Nebraska) Jim and Laura insisted we stay in the motel. Not even describing the romance of the rails when the giant freight train passes by just yards from your tent would sway them.



We also had a bit of drama resulting from me navigating from the GPS. We got to see some nice back roads on the outskirts of Omaha, including a gravel one with a big washboarded downhill. It made Laura wreck.



She put antibacterial ointment all over her wounds. Today they are green.

After we all got cleaned up, Jim and I went to the Mexican restaraunt and pigged out and had Margaritas, and Laura went to the movies and had popcorn.



Here's the map for today.

Debra's Element Ordeal

Back in October, Debra was involved in an accident with her brand new Element. She was turning right onto Boston Street from Fleet Street, and a lady driving a Toyota Solara was turning left onto Boston Street from Fleet. Debra's Element had some damage to the driver's side front quarter panel, a bent rim on the front driver's side, and a small dent by the door handle. The door handle dent was caused by the mirror on the Solara.

Both Debra and the other driver have the same insurance company, who said they were both at fault, and refused to pay anything. We fixed the major damage but did not bother to fix the small dent by the door handle.

A few weeks ago, some Baltimore County police showed up at our door first thing in the morning on Thursday, and told Debra she was involved in an accident in Pikesville the previous Sunday morning. They charged her with causing an accident, fleeing the scene, and failing to provide identification and insurance information. This was the first she'd heard of this accident.

She sent away for the police report, which we got a week later. It seems the other vehicle in this alleged accident was a 1999 Toyota minivan. And the accident was that Debra opened her door in front of the minivan as it was driving by, and the mirror of the minivan hit the open door and broke off.

The damage to Debra's Element is not consistent with the door being struck from behind when it was open. There is no damage to the edge of the door whatsoever. All the damage is on the side of the door by the handle.

I also suspected that the mirror on a minivan would be higher than the mirror on a Solara. We set out to the suburbs to find some Solaras and Toyota minivans.

You can click any of these pictures to make them bigger.

We found an older Toyota Sienna minivan parked next to a Solara at the CarMax parking lot in White Marsh. Note the difference in mirror height.



We were able to pull up next to the Solara to show how the mirror is at the same height as the door damage.



In the Lowe's parking lot we found another Solara (or maybe a Camry, the Solara is the two-door version of a Camry), and we were able to get next to it on the same side as the Element was on the accident in October.



Here is the door open next to the Solara/Camry mirror. Note the damage is at the same height as the mirror, and there is no damage to the edge of the door on the Element.



We also found a Toyota Sienna in the parking lot, and we were able to pull up beside it. I don't know the model year of this Sienna, but it looks newer than 1999. Note how the mirror is considerably higher than the damage to the door, and the damage to the door is in the interior of the door, and there is no damage to the edge of the door.



Here is where the minivan mirror would strike the door if it was open.



And there is no damage to the door edge at that point or anywhere else.

Bike Ride Report - Ohio 600k

This Saturday I took a shot at the very hot and hilly Ohio Randonneurs' 600k Brevet. Fourteen riders started, six finished. None of the six finishers would be me. DNF DNF DNF.

The route started at Grove City, a suburb south of Columbus. There was a 400k loop to beautiful and historic Marietta, the oldest city in Ohio, followed by a 200k loop south to Tar Hollow State Park. Beats me what Tar Hollow is like, I've never been there...

The DC Randonneurs would find much to admire in this brevet. Consider this stretch of road:



It's about a 15% grade. Yes, that sure *is* gravel! Most of it isn't washboarded.

I passed one guy who was walking his bike up it. He said he was done. I think he was the one who left the note on the motel door at Grove City the next day that said something like "I spent the night in Amesville in the hospital getting intravenous fluids because of severe dehydration."

When you get to the top you get to go up and down a lot more, and admire the rugged scenery.



This was actually a detour, where a bridge was out. You get 6 miles of this instead of riding six miles along a nice creek. I took these pictures driving home yesterday, which is why it's hazy and rainy. During the ride it was hot and sunny.

Here's a picture at 5:00 am at the Motel 6 parking lot in Grove City.



Since Ohio is farther west than Maryland, it is as dark at 5:00 as it is at 4:00 here.

The first 30 miles or so were really flat, and everyone rode together at a nice clip of about 17 mph or so.

I think this is the first control in New Lexington, OH. By here, the hills started, and the pack had broken up.


This is a really nice country store in Watertown, OH (I'm pretty sure) about 15 miles outside of Marietta. This is mile 110. I was here at around 2:00.



The girl working the store said it was really old, like from the 1940s. She said they had pictures of horses and buggies out front. I asked here if there were any cars in the pictures. She said no. Ohio might want to work on the history curriculum in the schools, I think.

I had this nutrition and hydration strategy, where I was packing wraps I made the night before in one of my panniers, with a Camelback bladder full of ice to keep them cool. There was a long stretch with no opportunity for more ice before here, and the temperature was in the 90s. I discovered that my food had spoiled.

Here is the scene from Marietta, which is where the Muskingum River joins the Ohio. The riverboat is moored on the Muskingum. I'm taking the picture from an old railroad bridge that has a bike path on it. Marietta is a very nice town. It's full of beautiful buildings from around 1800-1820.



The Marietta control is at 200k. I got there in 10 hours, which was a really good pace for me, especially since I recorded 9000 feet of climb on my GPS. I was really delighted, because the whole ride was estimated at 22000 feet of climb.

The control is a Subway. I had a sandwich, and took about 45 minutes off.

The second part of my nutrition and hydration strategy was to steadily sip Cytomax from a Camelback bladder. So I had two bladders, one water to cool the wraps, and one with Cytomax. At every stop I'd add ice to the Cytomax bladder, and put in a couple scoops of powder. Which is what I did at the Subway, for the first time in a couple hours.

After about 10 miles climbing out of the valley from Marietta, I started to feel really bad. I was very queasy. I figured it was the heat. It was in the 90s and sunny. I stopped at a convenience store and had a "gourmet ice", which is basically a slurpee. I felt better, and continued on.

But I soon felt nauseous again, and I began to suspect the Cytomax. Cytomax has amino acids, and it had gotten warm. I never actually emptied and cleaned my reservoir, I was just adding to it. I'm pretty sure it spoiled. It took me about another 20 miles to figure the out, and the whole time I was feeling horrible. So I stopped at a convenience store, emptied it out, cleaned it thoroughly, and filled it with ice water. I started feeling better. Just in time for the scenic gravel road detour depicted above.

Right after the detour, you get to New Straitsville, home of the Moonshine Festival.



As it happens, I grew up in southern Ohio, and I have much family there. I have personally had locally produced moonshine at the home of a relative or family friend located less than 20 miles from this brevet route. I feel right at home down there.

Also, southern Ohio is the land that time forgot for snack foods.



Those are Taco Doritos, a flavor I thought was long gone. Doritos used to only come in regular and Taco flavor. I remember when they added a third flavor, which would be Nacho.

Then there are Clark bars. I thought those were long gone too. But no, you can still get them in southern Ohio. A Clark bar is like a Butterfinger, but more peanut buttery. I love Clark bars.

This ride was quite a nostalgia trip for me.

Anyway, the 200k from Marietta back to Grove City was torture. The water in the Cytomax bladder kept picking up the spoiled Cytomax flavor and making me queasy. I had nothing, and I was crawling up every hill. I went from doing the first 200k with 9000 feet of climb in 10 hours to doing the second 200k, which had 7000 feet of climb in 13 hours. I got back into Grove City at 4:30 AM, 23 1/2 hours after I left.

I did not give it up immediately. I drank a V8 to re-electrolyte myself, took a shower, put on clean riding clothes, repacked the bike (Cytomax bladder out, bivy sack in), and tried to download the waypoints for the next 200k from my laptop to my GPS. But I couldn't figure out how to plug in the GPS to the USB cable. I lay down on the bed, and that was it. Out like a light, I was done.

I am now 0-3 for attempts at a 600k. One mechanical, two can't get out of bed. I keep making the same mistake, which is not eating enough. I did it again this time. Because I felt queasy, I didn't really eat anything after Subway in Marietta at mile 125. And I think I was running on empty for some ways before Grove City, and I couldn't make myself go on.

I'm not giving up, though.

A couple other things, I have to hand it to Bob Waddell, the Ohio RBA. This is not like the DC Randonneurs, where there are manned controls, and lots of people helping out. I think Bob does this pretty much by himself, and he does a great job. This was a a very cool route (at least the first 400k...)

And in the small world department, one of the six who finished is Chris Zacharias, who I grew up with. Our families are old friends. I had no idea Chris was a randonneur. It was great to see you, Chris!

Here's the map for the first 400k:

The MotionBased page is at http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=1000311

This chart from MotionBased tells it all: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/chart/get.mb?xy.domain=totalDuration&xy.ranges=totalDistance&xy.histogram=false&xy.legendVisible=false&xy.primaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.secondaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.rangeTitlesVisible=true&xy.domainAxisVisible=true&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&episodePk.pkValue=1000311&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&xy.autoFit=true&xy.width=1000&xy.height=450