The Long Weekend

After dropping Syd off Thurs, a huge smile overcame me. The long weekend with the hubby was about to begin, that was after Dirt Crit #3. Arriving early is key for these last few races, since there were over 200 people this week. Gearing was 38x17 and I hoped it would help me kick ass in my first B race. It was not in the cards for Jim, and he went down right in front of me at the start. He was able to sandbag in the C race and take 2nd. I was not last in the B race so I was happy. Plus, I did finally catch my rabbit, ( Traci ) on the last lap. I think if it had been longer I would have passed more riders, but whatever. And 38x17 was not the right gear either.

Its rare that Jim and I go out for drinks and dinner, especially without Syd. So, we took full advantage and went to Kitaro. I ate so much I felt like I was going to explode. After dinner we headed over to Friar Tucks to pick up some Woodford Reserve, bourbon, to have as a night cap. Yum. As we drank in our garden we discussed several options of what to do with our remaining 36 hours. We agreed on one thing. We would go wherever, as long as we did it on bikes.

Saturday morning, about 830, we filled our cups with coffee and bourbon and headed back to the garden to plan our epic bike ride. We would leave from our house and head to the Katy Trail. The actual destination was not set, we were just going to let it unfold. Just wing it, no plan, not what we usually do. After packing our backpacks with H2o, Hennesy Hammocks,spare socks,a pop tart , one granola bar, toothbrushes, change of clothes, and a sheet, we were off. This was going to be fun, I had no idea how much.

We rolled into Defiance, about 22 miles from home, and treated ourselves to a couple beers. We were only 6 miles from Augusta and another bar so we did not hang out long. Arriving in Augusta we were starved and spent way too much time and $$$ there. We hopped back on our bikes and headed for Herman. Neither one of us knew how far Herman was from Augusta. Now we do. Both of us felt good, maybe the beer talking, so we werent really worried. We had our hammocks and we were surrounded by trees right? I soon realized that the mosquitoes were hungry so that was motivation enough to keep pedaling. It was a beautiful night. If the moon had been a little fuller we would have not needed our lights.

At one point, outside of Marthasville , Jim said " maybe another 20 minutes or so and we should be in Herman." I think he really believed that and wanted it to be true. It wasn't, it was more like 20 miles. It was even funnier when he said " I had no idea that this would require such an effort". I full belly laughed at this point. I was doing something I loved with someone I loved, even though we had no idea where we were or where we were going to sleep, or where our next meal was coming from, I was having the best time of my life. Usually I would be very nervous with this situation. It was totally out of my comfort zone, but strangely I felt ok with it.

We arrived in Herman and stopped at the gas station to refuel. The station was closing in 15 minutes so we made our selections quickly and rolled to the City Park to spend the night. We were unable to hang our hammocks since there are no trees close together. We slept on picnic tables, not exactly comfortable but welcome to my tired, sore body.  We were entertained by the police in the wee hours of the morning. They gave us a once over and decided two cyclists wrapped up naked in sheets were not s threat.  I don't know what was going on but it kept them busy for about 2 hours.  Who knew? Wake up was about 530am. I glanced at my kit hoping it was dry.  Neither of our kit were dry but that turned out to be the least of our worries. We stopped at Hardees for coffee and headed out. The sky looked like rain, but someone assured me that it was going the other way. He was a fucking LIAR.

We rode for about 4 miles until the sky unloaded on us. Funny thing tho, Jim had acquired an umbrella yesterday about 3 miles into our ride. I made fun of him as he dragged it along. It came in handy, kind of. The rain was a super soaker. We huddled under the umbrella in the middle of the trail until it was evident that we needed more shelter. We were being beat to death with big rain, heavy rain.  It sucked.  Jim was able to scramble up a hill and put up the tarp from the hammock.  We stayed under it for about 30 minutes.  As the rain let up in intensity we sucked it up and rode in the rain. Jim is the only person I could have done this with. We shared stories of how miserable our rears were and reminded each other how much fun we were having.

We stopped at Peers for sandwiches , much cheaper than the day before and just as tasty. We were heading out when one of the residents had returned to the store with 2 pairs of " farm socks " for us. How nice was that? She had overheard Jim say how nice fresh socks would be and she ran home to get us a pair. We stayed dry the rest of the mileage home, however, it really warmed up around 3pm and the last 2 hours was a struggle but we made it home.  

Whew! Round trip was 131 miles! Jim completed his first century and then some... I pushed 38x17 and Jim rode the Major at 42x18. Yeah, were badasses.