I was well rested come Sunday morning, and after taking care of usual Sunday business and some other things, I left the house at approx 9:10 am to ride to Cameron Village, where I started the Bunn Warmer perm-pop at 9:50. To paraphrase "Fixie Pixie" Pamela, RUSA #12, there are headwinds and crosswinds, but no such thing as tailwinds; instead there are headwinds, crosswinds, and "we're feeling good." I didn't realize how good I was feeling until I got to the Info Control at Wake X-roads, approx 14.5-miles into the route; no stops or even pauses for red stop lights, it took 54-minutes to get to that control. "Wow!" I thought, "I didn't realize I was riding so well." I spent 3 minutes to scribble some notes on the cue sheet -- yes, I actually had a cue sheet with me! -- and the control card, and then set off for Bunn.
If I didn't realize it before, I certainly did when on Fowler Rd: there was definitely a tailwind coming out of the SW, or maybe SSW. I don't understand how such a breeze could have helped much on those first 14.5-miles as the route is up-and-down, and there is protection from the wind provided by trees and city buildings.
It must be at about the 25.8-mile mark, there was previously an old, wood-plank bridge with asphalt laid atop it. The kind of bridge that has been being replaced all over NC in recent years. Replaced with a new modern bridge and smooth asphalt; that was nice. However, the DOT and contractors completely ruined that section of road. There used to be a short but steep climb curving up to an old farmhouse still in use as the center-piece of a working farm, with large trees near the road. Now there are only HUGE ditches, probably the DOT's idea of run-off mitigation, but those HUGE ditches look more fit for being alongside a super-highway than being alongside a small rural road. They took half the front yard of the farmhouse, and there are NO great shade trees alongside the road or between the road and the house. The engineering is also causing problems on the southbound side of the road. The roadway used to be at ground level the whole way through that section; but now, the curves and inclines have been engineered such that in at least places, actually three I think, the roadways is well below the level the of the land and fields or homesites. As a result, there are HUGE washouts of gravel and more sliding down the steep access "driveways" into the fields. In one place, the entire southbound lane is filled with a huge mound of gravel. The pleasant scene of climbing to that farmhouse has been obliterated, and the engineered inclines are causing severe problems. A failure of DOT planning / implementation. (Of course, it is now much easier to ride up that engineered grade outbound; but that is a small return for the obliteration of the quarter to half mile of scenic byway -- and not to mention that the gravel and other debris spilling onto the southbound lane, the homeward bound lane, could be more than just a nuisance if a car should happen upon one while cycling that section on the return.)
Pearces Rd has been resurfaced. Smooth new asphalt instead of being a tar-snake haven.
I stopped at Perry's Pond to take a photo; texted same to original route-owner Mick with caption "hello." I figured that he would recognize the location, but as I type this, I've not heard from Mick, so I don't know.
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| That little tree on the right has made framing the photos at this location much more difficult. However, a tree there ought to help keep the creek-bank intact should there be floods of water coming over that dam and down the creek. [photo credit to me] |
Wake X-roads to Perry's Pond took 54 minutes. It took 6 minutes to take the photo and get the phone back into the zip-lock bag; I guess I was fumbling about with control card, cue sheet, cash, driver's license, and coin purse that also fits in that zip-lock bag. The plastic of the bag was not being cooperative, grabbing onto the plastic of the coin purse, or the folded cue sheet and control card were not being cooperative in welcoming the return of the phone.
I calculate that it was only another 15 minutes from Perry's Pond at the bottom of Pearces Rd to the Subway in Bunn. I was clearly being helped by the increasing tailwind.
I ended up being only 17 minutes at the Subway. After some minutes in line, not moving, people at the counter apparently unable to make decisions, or the worker being extremely slow, most likely both, I cut the line to the cashier to get a drink, which is all I wanted. I could have gotten a small drink, but I order medium for $1.92 including tax. Filled my insulated water bottle with ice and water. Filled the non-insulated bottle with ice and sweet tea. Drank two complete tumblers of sweet tea -- probably 24 oz tumbler -- so perhaps I consumed 48 ounces, or nearly so, of tea before hitting the road for the return.
Backing up a bit, I had gotten to the Subway at 12:02 pm. I.e., 2h12 elapsed for the outbound leg. Subtracting the 9 minutes stoppage time, 2:03 in-motion for approx 33.4-miles -- better than 16-mph avg pace. Breeze-blown, but with climbing to slow me some. But I had ridden with a good cadence the entire outbound leg; even used the 50-tooth chain ring some -- in retrospect, obviously aided by the building tail-breeze.
Immediately on the return, while still in Bunn, as I turned onto Bunn Elementary Rd from Main Street, the tail-breeze that had been building during the morning was clearly a headwind. It would be a noticeable thing all the way back. Well, once I got to Wake X-roads, the impact of the headwind was diminished due to the combination of the hillier nature of the terrain (and also some tree protection, and finally protection from the city buildings). 1:17 in-motion from Bunn to Wake X-roads, with no stoppage or pausage along the way. (Compare that to the 1:09 in-motion outbound for that. Of course, Pearces Rd has a longer climb on the return, and Fowler Rd is a shallow incline for a long stretch on the return, today (as seems usual) into the wind, but at least half that 8-minute difference is likely due to the increasing headwind -- the long grasses in the fields had gotten quite whippy due to the wind. Strangely, the flag, or was it flags, in Hopkins were completely limp both outbound and on the return; probably protected by trees.)
I did not bother to go into the control at Wake X-roads. Instead, I ended up taking 5 minutes, 5 minutes !?, yikes, to scribble some time estimates on the control card and cue sheet, and to again struggle to get all the contents back into the zip-lock bag. Oh, and the text to Mick did not actually send when I was next to Perry's Pond. It may have automatically sent from along the road, but I re-sent the pic and text while at Wake X-roads. That's why the five minutes.
From Wake X-roads to Raleigh, the route gets hillier. The usual suspect climbs slowed me, but otherwise I was still keeping the cadence, etc.. The entire ride I kept having the sensation of "oh, I'm here already!" Similar sensations had occurred when I did RBR last week, but it was much more pronounced on this Bunn Warmer ride.
Anyway, I was slowed by the headwind and the legs were starting to feel the effort. And, getting across downtown Raleigh is a pain. Except for Peace St., downtown is set up for quick north-south travel, not east-west. And Peace St. is all torn up and gets filled with traffic in the afternoon, so I do think that Mick's routing to get across downtown is a good one: minimizes traffic issues while winding around to get to the one-way roads that are headed west. The stop lights are a nuisance, but there is no way to avoid them. I estimate that I spent at least 4 minutes waiting at stop lights; it may have been more than 4 minutes, maybe as many as 6!
I got back to the Cameron Village McD's at 2:58 pm. 2h12 outbound elapsed. 0h17 at the turn around control. 2h39 elapsed on the return (and I estimated 2:29 in-motion on the return for a total 4:32 in-motion to go along with the total 5h08 elapsed). The winding around to get through downtown Raleigh means that the return leg is one mile longer that the outbound leg (which just blasts straight east on Peace St). A last comment on Peace Street -- good grief but it is mostly just a collection of banged up, pot-holed, pieces of concrete, asphalt, and patches -- not a pleasant surface at all !!
I'll pat myself on the back a bit. Obviously misplaced "bragging." My 5h08 is the second fastest ever time on the Bunn Warmer perm-pop, beating Mick's first ride of the course by 1 minute -- I did NOT know that until after I got home and submitted my result. The fastest ever was turned in by Dayton, 4h35. However, all those 6-hour, or nearly so, elapsed times are not really comparable to Dayton's time, Mick's, nor mine -- I'm pretty confident that almost all the other rides include a stop at the "Farmer's Table" for lunch -- possibly only some Sridhar rides did not include a long lunch stop. So, yes, second fastest ever for me, but that is a faux comparison.
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I got an ice cream cone and a $1 drink at McD's, and took my time drinking at least two tumblers of half-and-half Sprite and Coke. Also refilled the insulated water bottle with ice and water and the non-insulated bottle with ice and sweet tea. I sat at one of the outside tables, enjoying the day, for as much as 30 minutes. Then I headed out for the 8.7-mile return to my hovel.
However, when I got to Lynn's neighborhood, I detoured to her house, ostensibly to chat about dog-sitting Winnie this coming weekend while Lynn goes to visit her friend of about 38 years, Becky, who lives just outside Fredericksburg, VA. Surprise, she wasn't home (and Winnie was completely zonked out on the sofa by the front window -- usually, Winnie stands on the sofa, or perches her front legs and belly on top of the back of the sofa in order to continuously watch for Lynn's return). I called Lynn and learned that she was almost back home from having gone to Home Depot for some landscaping rocks. Winnie did not wake up until well after Lynn had opened the front door -- Lynn was shocked that Winnie did not feel the vibrations of us walking up the ramp.
Backing up a bit, Lynn had forgotten to take her heavy-but-upright Specialized Allez off the bike rack on her red CRV, so I was doing that when Lynn pulled in the driveway. Lynn was completely shocked when she realized that she had forgotten the bike. I told her that I had wondered if maybe she was hoping that someone would steal it.
Lynn further "put me to work" lugging the one bag of landscape rocks from the back seat of the blue Honda to the back yard and a couple other simple house-holdy or other chores (including taking that destroyed wheel out to the shed). After doing those little things, we chatted some about the dog-sitting and then I putzed the final mile-and-six-tenths from her house to my abode.
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During our chat, I had mentioned that I needed to go to Food Lion to get some groceries. Lynn texted about an hour-and-a-quarter after I left her place to ask if I'd like a ride up to Food Lion. Yes. She also needed to return to Home Depot to get a piece of hardware, so we went to Home Depot, ate dinner together at Milton's with more chatting on various subjects, and then we stopped at the Food Lion.
All in all, a fine Sunday.
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