Oct-16: "I've Never Ridden Thru Leaves Before"

An Irregulars "Oldie, but a Goodie" route, the Stem-Hester-Mt.Energy-Grissom tour.

For a Google-earth based map:  click here.    

We actually did a very slight modification of the mapped route -- we rode across Norwood Rd to Leesville Rd to Hickory Grove Rd to Carpenter Pond Rd.  We rejoined the mapped route once we got to Carpenter Pond (and after cutting about 0.2 miles and the Mt. Vernon Ch Rd drop-down-to-the-creek-nearly-at-lake-level out of the ride -- it's warmer to avoid that 150-ish foot drop at the beginning of a ride).

There were a few early comments about chilly hands, but well before the 5-mile mark, such comments ceased.  I presume everyone was in the same situation I was -- my fingers warmed up once the blood started pumping through the system.
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Early-ish in the ride, Snapper and I were chatting about EPIC RIDES from early in one's adult cycling career.  Harvey mentioned Gargone and the first time they did a 24-mile ride.  Career record 30 and 40 miles rides were mentioned.  Harv noted that the first time he did a 50-miler (with the Irregulars, btw -- actually, just about all Harvey's record long rides have been Irregular rides) that when he got home, he got Ashley to get in their car and they drove the route -- Harvey was excited about the ride and wanted to share his excitement with his spouse.

I recalled that when Lynn did her first 50-miler, we did the same thing.  That is, we got in a car and drove the route.  There were some BIG climbs on that route -- Woodland Church Rd and Purnell Rd come to mind.

I related the story of Lynn's first ever 80-miler -- it was a hot summer day, and when she got back to the house, she left her steed near the street and walked across to where I was watering some recently planted landscaping.  As she approached me, I turned the hose/sprayer to "shower" or "mist" setting, she spread her arms wide and soaked up the cool water onto her body and clothes.

She was sure she would never do a longer ride (other than the New Bern MS-150 rides).  [For those interested, her longest ride to-date was the 1000 km Natchez Trace Brevet, and her toughest ride to-date was the PacTour Elite Tour (~ 3000 miles in 17 days) earlier this year.]  
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Somewhere during the first half of the ride, perhaps on Stem/Brogden Rd just after leaving Creedmoor, Robert noted "hey, I've never ridden through leaves before".  Should be plenty of opportunity for that in the next couple weeks.
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After leaving Stem, the course goes down to cross one little creek "valley", and then climbs back up to near the elevation of Stem.  As we topped that little climb, I asked IvaHawk if he recalled the first time he had ridden Tally Ho Rd north out of Stem.  I had to remind him that as we topped the climb described above, and the immediately following next creek "valley" came into view, IvaHawk had exclaimed "look at that hill!"  Iva chuckled. 

Upon topping that "look at that hill!" today, I brought up Robert's first experience with Tally Ho / Saunders / Belltown roads.  Today we stayed on Tally Ho as it becomes Saunders (Tally Ho makes a 90 degree left corner), but on Robert's first experience at that corner, the planned course was to turn onto Belltown Rd.  However, Robert and BobH and Norris went the Wrong Way, and failed to make the turn until IvaN, IvaHawk and I yelled to them "Wrong Way". 

I think Lee is right -- Robert's nick ought to be "Wrong Way".  The above was his second Wrong Way turn.  The first time, at least he was trying to follow the dropping off the front hammers.  And since then, he has turned the Wrong Way at least three times -- even though each time he had a cue sheet and the others with whom he was "wrong waying" / possibly leading him astray, did not.  One out of every five rides that Robert has done, he has gone, or tried to go, the Wrong Way. 

Luckily, Robert is always upbeat and enjoys his ride.  Even after re-suggesting the "Wrong Way" moniker today, I heard Robert whistling as he rode along.  I've heard him whistling at least one or two other times on previous rides.  Gotta' appreciate a guy that is enjoying his ride that much.
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Snapper took some "snaps" with his ... phone (I refuse to mention the brand ... but one can create movies on it ... which was a point of conversation for awhile during the ride ... for some examples of some movies made on that brand of phone ... check out the Research Trailer Park blog).  These three snaps were taken on East Thollie Green Rd -- you can find it parallel to I-85 on the linked map above.

Chat time for IvaN and Robert.

Snapper needs to practice his "panda" shots. 

And, oh look, see who is riding in the middle of the road ... again. 

Order has been restored. 

Nearing the end of the ride, we paused at the corner of Horseshoe and Lawrence roads.  (We took a second snap, hoping to photo-shop Snapper into the line, but he claims the second snap did not come out well enough.) 

IvaN, IvaHawk, Tito, Robert, me.

Snapper is snapping the pic.

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It was a great day for riding.  Sunny and clear, although a bit chilly (but only because we're still used to the awful heat we had all summer) and a bit breezy (by central North Carolina standards).  [Hey, Sag, aka, Andy, look, I mentioned the STATE where I ride and blog.  Pick yourself back up out of the ditch.  ;-) ]
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Cast for today:  Snapper, IvaHawk, Tito, IvaN, Robert, me.
[We didn't know that BobH and Norris intended to join us for the ride -- they had not responded to the rider call e-mail which had very tentatively suggested an 8 a.m. start time -- and thus we didn't know to clue them in that IvaHawk and Tito had tight back-end time constraints AND that the committed crew had rebelled and voted for a 7:30 start.  BobH and Norris arrived at PUE just as we were leaving.  We tried to hastily arrange a meeting place that they could reach before us by cutting ~ 3.5 miles out of the start, but no luck.  We saw BobH and Norris at PUE at the end of our respective rides -- as Norris noted, it was "a great day for riding".] 
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Btw, IvaHawk set a personal record of 17:45 on the Ghoston-Peed-MVC finishing "time-trial".  By getting that personal record (by 45 seconds), he accomplished one of his goals for the day:  "beating Harvey on G-P-MVC".  ;-)
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Oct-16: 

PUE:  DocN-Creedmoor-Stem-MtEnergy-Grissom 100k; 62.6 m.; 3 hrs, 58 min in motion time; 15.7 mph.

Q-1 tot: 16 rides; __938.2 m.; _60 hrs, 39 min; 15.5 mph.
Q-2 tot: 31 rides; 2,263.3 m.; 151 hrs, 29 min; 14.9 mph.
Q-3 tot: 37 rides; 2,293.2 m.; 156 hrs, 31 min; 14.7 mph.
Oct tot: _6 rides; __517.4 m.; _33 hrs, 54 min; 15.2 mph.
YTD tot: 90 rides; 6,012.1 m.; 402 hrs, 35 min; 14.9 mph. 
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