May-14: Two Pops Ride

In addition to my usual goal of HAVE FUN, I have three "real" cycling goals this year:

1. K-Hound,
2. Mondial, and 
3. I'm not sayin'. 

I'm WAAY behind a K-Hound pace.

So, rather than just doing a long populaire, or even a 200k perm,
I decided to take a page from "Scary" GaryG's playbook,
And double up on populaires (I have seen that GaryG has done three pops on the same day).
Doing 'Denny's Store Sortie' starting at 0600,
And 'Bay Leaf - Oxford - Bay Leaf' starting at 1300.

The Denny's Store ride would be solo.
MickH scheduled to join me for the Oxford ride.
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Denny's Store 138-km

I like this route.
And once one gets into and beyond Butner, there's NO traffic.

Range Road starts with what is often referred to as "Range Wall,"
Which many would laugh at, but ... it's intimidating to flatlanders. 

My favorite part of Range Road is a few miles later.
Early on a Spring, Summer or Fall sunny morning,
The sunlight dapples the road between leaf shadows,
Making for a pleasant minute or two.

After Range Rd, Bahama / Mt. Harmony Ch Road has a couple climbs that slow me down.
There are also a couple scenic places.
The hillside with the several old tobacco drying barns comes to mind.

After passing Mt. Harmony Church, Johnnie Jones Rd has a lot of soap-box-derby potential.
And a popper or two.
A nice pastureland scene, and some views of distant hill ridges.

From Surl to Allensville, I'm usually just concentrating on pedaling,
Hoping to get to the control sooner than usual.
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It's only 13-miles from the Allensville Store control to the open control in Berea.

It takes me about 19-minutes to get to the Denny's Store corner from the Allensville control.
If riding with others, I usually try to stop at the Denny's Store sign and take a photo.
I even sometimes do that when solo, or take a photo at the cemetery just before the crossroads.
But this day, I had another photo plan. 
So I "sped" on toward Berea.

I can "speed" toward Berea after cresting the climb just after Denny's Store,
As there are no noteable climbs and (I think) it is generally a slight downslope.

I always like it when I arrive at the Berea control an hour or less after arriving at Allensville.
This day, after the above mentioned crest, the bike was moving at a fast pace,
But it seemed as if I was putting no effort into the pedaling.
Nirvana?
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The effortless pace continued after the short stop at the Berea control.
(I took advantage of the 2 soda cans for $1 special.
I got Pepsi's and poured most of the liquid into the empty water bottle.)

I arrived at Culbreth (crossroads) in what seemed to be no-time.
I stopped to take some photos of the farm-house at the corner.
Or rather, what used to be the farm-house.

View more-or-less from the corner.

Taken from under the tree seen in the prior photo.  (I think that's from where I took this one.)

Three chimneys and part of the "front garden".

After taking 5 or 8 minutes for the above photos,
I remounted and found that the effortless quick pace was still happening.  :-)

Past Shoofly, through Stem, down Brogden Rd to and into Creedmoor,
Effortless pace still.  :-)  :-)

I stopped at the Southern States in Creedmoor to get cold water in my bottles.
I also called Mick to let him know that I would certainly be on time for a 1 pm Oxford start.

Upon leaving Creedmoor, I decided to purposefully pull back on the pace / effort.
(Certainly you know that the "effortless" pace had required some effort.)
The idea was to conserve some energy for ride #2 -- i.e., the Oxford route.

I finished the ride with an official completion time of 1226.
6 hours, 26 minutes elapsed time officially.
Given the 4 minute late start and the ease-off-the-pace the last 16-miles,
I was quite pleased and stoked for the second "half" of the adventure.
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Oxford 104-km

Still to be written.