Jun-26 -- The Stagville Blunder

Or Hello, Gyros !
Or I know Martin, and Iva's no Martin

I was "out" preparing to do another ride (more later), so the SpeedyIvaHawk organized and led the "Irregulars" Saturday morning.  He sent me a "report"; my initial comment is that one would expect a graduate of that little liberal arts college over Chapel Hill way to have learned the value of PARAGRAPHS; but no; so I created PARAGRAPHS; us "Big Ten'ers" have always been skeptical of those from that "Another Carolina Championship conference" (that is the proper name of the "ACC", isn't it?).  Here is a link to the route that most of the "crew" did.  This route was ridden "Irregularly" once before; but LT and I "di'nt need no stinkin' cue sheets".  The following, with PARAGRAPHS, and some comments from the editor inserted, is Iva's report:

When I arrived at 5:45 at PUE, many Irregulars were already present; that must be some kind of record. Arriving later were Tito and Gary in his TLC van. Harvey was there, not riding, to see us off [editor's note:  hmmn]. After all had gathered, there were 12 riders, a high number for us:  Gary, Wendy, two guests named Dennis and Richard, Tito, Aggs, LeeD, Robert, Levi, BobH, Smitty, and me [editor's note:  aka, "SpeedyIvaHawk"].

Eager to start, and at Gary's urging (he was not quite ready), we set off at 6:09 AM. Tito and Smitty led the way, Dennis and I followed. By the time we were on Carpenter Pond, I grew weary of keeping up with the lead two and slacked off. Dennis chose to stay with me. Soon we were sucked up by the peleton, but no Wendy, Richard, or Gary.

We waited at Carp Pond and Leesville for a bit and decided to shove off and wait again at Hwy 98. When we got to 98, Dennis called Gary's cell. No answer. On Patterson, Dennis got a call. They were already at Cheek. We learned later that they took Olive Branch to get ahead of us. We finally reunited with them at the Exxon at Red Mill (scene of my 2003 accident).

After turning on Old 75, I thought I'd ride up to the front and tell them the turn was on the left near the bottom of the hill as I had heard Martin say one time. Strike 1. That was Stagville Rd..  So we all bombed down Stagville for a few hundred yards. Everyone realized it pretty quickly.

We regrouped and got back on course. After the long pull up Cassam, we got to Range Rd.  Lee and Robert turned left to add another 14 miles to the route. They would follow Range north, east, and back south to come out on Old 75 just like us. Their route was 20.7 miles versus 6.1 for us.

As we approached Roberts Chapel Rd., a large group of cyclist approached us. If I was trying to time a merge with the Gyros, I couldn't have done it any better. It was like "a two ship join" in formation flying, it was so precise. Gary said they were the Gyro A minuses.

We fell in behind them and stayed there for a long time. Altogether, both groups must have numbered 50 riders. It must have looked like those photos of the tour where you see the peleton riding by a field of daisies. Everyone was thinking of what Martin would think, and having a good chuckle.

I said Martin would have known their route and would have calculated it such that we wouldn't have run up on them [editor's note:  Martin did know their route, had evaluated the possibilty of a close encounter of the Gyro kind, and concluded it was unlikely.  And Martin thinks that he did inform Iva of same -- but maybe he changed his mind and decided not to clutter Iva's mind with useless trivia.  Of course, Martin had assumed a timely start -- eh-hem, Gary -- and had also NOT assumed any mis-directed turns.]. Or, he would have immediately recalculated an alternate route if we did. Strike 2. Finally, they rode off from us as we came into Stem [editor's note:  there is a rumor that the Gyros are afraid of the "mean Rednecks" of Stem -- ask Harvey about the "'mean Rednecks' of Stem" reference].

After our stop at our usual place in Stem, the last part of ride was at a pretty good pace. I heard there was spirited competition for the Ghoston, Peed, MVC trophy among Smitty, Tito, Levi, Aggs, and Gary. I think we'll see Gary in the polka dot jersey next time. 
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Good ride today, I had two strikes as the leader. I would have been impeached on a third one. It'll be good to have Martin back.  I'm out on vacation July 3 thru 9.  I'll see you all on the 10th, I hope.  [Editor's note:  Iva is being too self-depricating:  he is a better and more natural leader than I ever hope to be.  Ha, Iva, I got one "in on ya'".] 

IvaHawk