Sep-07: North of Burlington 202

Bob currently has the longest R-streak in North Carolina.
At least one 200k or longer every month since he joined RUSA in January-2010.

[IanH currently has the second longest R-streak in North Carolina. 
Ian's streak began in April-2010.] 

Bob has his eyes on completing R-120.
And then, he may re-think his rando goals.

My R-streak is much shorter.
I got to R-41 in December-2013, but life got in the way the next month.
Since then, I've gotten to R-10 and R-11 before life (December stuff) got in the way.
Actually, I recently learned (yep, "learned" is the correct word)
That I did complete a fourth R-12 ending in early 2016.

[I don't recall much from 2016 -- readers may recall why.] 

Bob, Ian, and I are three of the surviving members of the NC-2010-Rando-Rookies.
Tim is the fourth surviving member.
That completes the roster of 2010-rookies that have been / still are active riders.
Each of the four of us has earned at least one K-Hound award and the Mondial award.
The other three have done some other impressive stuff -- too much to mention here. 

[There is a fifth member still a RUSA member, but 
he has NEVER gotten credit for any rando ride.]

I need to get this post back on track.


For his / our September-2019 R-ride,
Bob and I did Bob's "North of Burlington" permanent.

Starting in Graham, NC, the route wiggles northeast over to NC-119,
Then heads more-or-less due north for nearly 30-miles on that smooth road.

I had worked late on Friday; my legs were a bit tired at the start of the ride.
I had to ask Bob to back off the pace half-a-mile per hour or so early on the "wiggles."

I continued to struggle to get the legs into a happy place.
At some point while on NC-119, I decided to force the issue a bit,
And took the lead, upping the pace, taking advantage of the smooth, flattish road.
Oh, and there may have been a bit of a tailwind -- or maybe not.
The legs came around.  Yippee!

There is an Info Control 3.2-miles into the route.
It is a good thing I was with Bob, because as I type this, with readers on,
I can barely make out the question on the Control Card.
If I had had to answer the question during the ride without assistance,
I would have been stuck, because I don't carry the reading glasses with me on rides.

[Some day, I will have to begin to carry the readers with me.] 

Bob at the Leasburg fire-station en route to Semora.  "We" took this photo so I could text it to our friend Ricochet Robert, "perhaps" to confuse him.  [Ricochet mostly / almost only rides the Permanent "Leesville - Leasburg - Leesville" which does NOT pass this station.] 

Bob often wears one of his PacTour jerseys.  Often when he does so, I accuse him of trying to intimidate me -- running joke now several years old, but still makes Bob smile -- he tries to hide the smile, but ... .  [I've sometimes emailed the photo along with a message such "Bob trying to intimidate me again" to SusanN of PacTour.  This time, with Bob's assistance, I texted the photo and message.  Next day, I got a return message from Susan:  "glad to see Bob is riding again [after completing the PacTour 'Ridge of the Rockies']."  There was more to the message, but ... .]

 
The first timed control is at Semora, some 41.7-miles into the route.
According to my card, we arrived 3h03 after starting.

[Although that seems reasonable, I was thinking we would have been faster than that.]

We sat on the outside bench enjoying the sunshine.
Perhaps for a few minutes more than we needed to have done.

The route reverses itself and heads back south on NC-119 about 20-miles to Baynes.

[Sadly, the old country store at Baynes has closed.  Permanently. 
That was a useful liquid re-stocking location on two of Bob's routes.  No more.]

At Baynes, the route turns west, and twists its way on back-roads to Elon.
It must have felt warm and/or there had been a headwind from Semora to Baynes.
I must have feeling hot and had consumed most of my liquids,
Because I asked Bob if we could stop at a store just a few miles west of Baynes.

We stopped at a gas station / c-store to restock.
There was quite a line waiting to check out.
One man had a $100 bill to pre-pay for gas,
But refused to follow standard protocol for cash pre-payment.
Back-and-forth with the clerk.
The clerk doing his job -- the customer being ridiculous.
That was my opinion, to which I'll be sticking.
It was also the opinion of all the other in-line customers near us.
The annoying customer finally quit arguing and left the line.
However, he never pumped any gas.
It appeared the entire exchange with the clerk was simply an exercising in being a jerk.

[I usually limit myself to non-negative comments about non-cycling store customers, 
But I make a deserved exception this time.]

The next timed control was in Elon, just after passing the college, er, university.
Bob and I stopped at the Subway for our Control, and to snag some lunch.

The temperatures had risen into the 80's Fahrenheit, but
The breeze, from whatever direction it was coming,
Was acting as a cooling breeze, not as a hot sirocco wind.

From Elon, the route continues west to Gibsonville,
And then nips a bit more southwesterly to continue west through rural areas.
I recall the route makes a north jog and then turns east once reaching the McCleansboro area.

[I'm guessing as I can't locate a RWGPS or other map of the route.] 

Heading east, the route skims the north side of Gibsonville,
Then transits Elon -- where there were quite a few college parties in progress --
One or two appeared to be being broken-up by police authorities.

The route continues eastward thru West Burlington, Burlington, East Burlington, and
Finally comes to a finish back at the start in Graham.

All in all, we had a good ride.
But the repeated start and stop for stop-lights and stop-signs the last 25-miles got to me.

[Bob indicated it is more on the order of 12 or 15 miles of citified riding.] 

Regardless, I asked Bob if it was possible to revise the route and
Stay on rural roads until right near the finish.

[Bob reports that he has figured an alternate finish -- a more rural roads route.] 

My Excel log indicates a total of 126.3-miles with 8:43 in-motion.

Permanent Route Name / #	Distance	Date	Finishers	DNF
NC: North of Burlington / 2653	202	2019/09/07	2	0

Cert#	RUSA#	Name	Club / ACP Code	Time
RUSA-T92432	5843	B__, Bob	Randonneurs USA / 933095	10:17
RUSA-T92433	6218	S__, Martin	Randonneurs USA / 933095	10:17