well, my first tomrv has come and gone. good times were had, a sore butt lingers.
over the course of the last 2 days:
-miles: 214.46
-hours: 12.15 (saddle time)
cast:
chad, scott, john, jayce, and me
saturday:
leave scott community college at 6:45 am-ish. once clear of bettendorf, heading north through leclaire, someone had a sudden stroke of genius, and thus began the section of the ride i like to refer to as *death march* i suspect jayce plowed the way for what would become a genuine assault on the first 50 miles. a paceline formed, and we took turns pulling, being joined every so often by other riders. soon enough, john had the good sense to fall off, realizing quite cleverly i might add, that we just might need some of our energy left for the hard part of the ride once the hills up north set in. we skipped the princeton firehouse breakfast stop, as well as the first sag stop, in favor of continuing on to the miles stop, where margo and ma were volunteering. *big thanks to any tomrv volunteers who may stumble upon this write up* it was here in miles that i realized what i liked about tomrv. you can ride with whom you choose, as fast as you please, and you can always meet up at the sags. shortly after we arrived, john pulled up too. meeting up with jean and her crew was nice too. as luck would have it, i would run into those jokers several times throughout the weekend. jayce took off earlier than us from miles, and i didn't see him again for the rest of the trip. rumor has it he reached dubuque at some ridiculous early hour, and slept in the grass for a while. i am jealous only of the nap...
thank goodness for trains!!! a little break before resuming the death march to miles.
on to savanna from miles, i joined john and we rode at a nice sensible pace. this section of the ride was beautiful, river route along the bluffs on the illini-side, and thus prompted all sorts of one-handed camera acrobatics, which would continue for much of the remainder of the ride. the camera even survived a fall at roughly 28 mph onto the pavement. some nice car was kind enough to slow down and let me get it rather than grind it into the pavement...i would exercise more caution with the camera for the rest of the trip. we regrouped at the savanna sag stop...which, as with all the sags on this trip, was awesome. qcbc knows how to throw together a nice bike ride!
riding along the mississippi
we rode together for most of the rest of the way north, but broke up once the hills began. the climb up to chestnut was great. a tough ride, but a really nice climb i thought. again more awesome scenery. i guess, growing up in iowa has rubbed off on me...but i like seeing farms out in the country, on my favorite type of roads to ride....country roads without those crummy yellow lines to mar them all up. a highly (pun!) popular sag at the crest of the hill which plays home to chestnut was enjoyed by all. *popsicles* i even ran into an old high school teacher, which was a nice surprise. the chestnut downhill was hairy, scary, stupid fun. i held back quite a lot... that hill was still scary fast.
thus began the hilly section, a few more miles, galena, and a section affectionately referred to as the wall later, we found ourselves rolling in one at a time to a nice little bar. and CHEESEBALLS. yeah, that's my recovery food. cheese fried in a vat of boiling oil. yum. by this time our group had grown and included several other quad-citians (me thinks) that chad knew. a mere 11 miles left, we figured it was time to relax for a spell. finishing the ride we even teamed up with ryan and his dad.
arrived in dubuque. of course, we had to end with a giant hill. the banquet was great. although, i hit the dead-to-the-world mode after my dinner. once i sat outside in the beer garden for a while, i regained my will to live. happily mom and margo even swung on up to join us for a while. a few drinks, some "lively cowboy tunes," and a rainstorm later and it was time to retire.
sunday:
this is getting long enough as it is...
essentially more of the same, in reverse, at a much more tolerable pace. my rear commanded it. i will say riding the extra loop (20 some odd miles to push the 88 mile ride to over a bit over a century) gave me the chance to see some really nice bluffs and scenery that we had rocketed by saturday. mainly because those 20 some odd miles, regardless of what everyone tells you...are pretty much all uphill. but totally worth it. we stopped at most of the sags, and stayed together more on sunday. john opted to ride the short route with ryan and his dad to preston. i'm sure his lady appreciates it! met up with them all in preston, where ma and margo once again volunteered.
riding through princeton was nice. we took the route out of town that i knew very well from growing up, and it was a treat to ride it. the last time i rode anywhere out there would have been an ill-fated north scott tour with dad, involving me on a 20" and a nice big endo.
a stop, once again with about 10 miles left, at the argo general store, some beers, more cheeseballs, made us fresh to finish the route.
scott won the first-annual-thus-still-gaining-credibility who-can-not-sit-the-longest competition.
...and i slept like a baby sunday night.
