Essence - Many small segments
1:30 a.m. The wind that had been so pleasantly been blowing and soothing me to sleep, now was turning serious. It was also starting to carry rain with it. It was enough to wake me and I quickly pulled my rain fly down as the srom that we had been antipating was apparently here. I only got a little wet pulling my rainf ly forward , but it had been worth it to have the screens open during the wind.
With the rain, though now came enjoyable but fitful rest. Waking every 1/2 hour to a sever thunderstorm and continually checking the rain worthiness of my tent. Some rain was blowing under the fly and my own condensation was condensing under the fly and then dripping on me, so I was a little bit wet. Fortunately everything held up and it was a very fun and exciting night to be sleeoping outside.
At 5:00a.m. when the alarms went off, I just laid there trying to figure out how we were going to ride in this storm. Of course there was scheudle to keep, but we couldn’t ride in this! ARe you kidding me? I heard noises from neighbor tents and decided I needed to get up and do what I could to get ready. At one point we were mostly ready. We had everythiing pakced up except for the vary tents we were sitting in.
and we sat ans watied for the storm to ease up...
and we sat...
and we sat...
Finally about 5:30, after 4 hours of heavy thunderstorms with lightning and thunder crackling just overhead, the storm receded and we all emerged like bears after hibernation.
You have never seen so many tents dismantled in such a short period of time. Within minutes the camp field was nearly empty.
And breakfast was fully underway under the shelter of the animal show barn.
And then, it was time to ride...
in the rain.
It is hard to describe the different ways it rained even with the extensive Seattle Rain vocabulary. It poured, then it became worse and was a delluge. then it eased to a sprinkle. ... then picked up the pace to a light rain... then torrentual... and on and on.
We were soaked form head to toe. Many of us had doneed our rain gear, which not being breathable, meant that we were just as wet inside our jackets from all the sweat and exertion as though of us who had not worn jackets.
As you can imagine the cameras we stowed away in dry places and very few pictures no pictures were taken.
After the rain we had a wonderful water break provided by the combined family efforts of Ane and Liz.
Ane’s dad, Gordy, was out video taping everyone. Her sister’s were welcoming everyone into the tent and it was we got to meet the girls’ moms and have a sit down. It was such a great rest.
From there we rode off into the farm land of Minnesota.
I don’t quite KA CHUNK...
quite know KA CHUNK...
how to describe KA CHUNK...
the roa KA CHUNK...
KA CHUNK...
roads of Minnesota.
They were KA CHUNK...
Definitely KA CHUNK...
KA CHUNK...
rough.
The Ka Chunks may seem like they are added for the effect, but it very much felt like that. you couldn’t get through a full thought without being jarred. Not even a full second between bumps and we were being bounced. And these were the holes that had been patched! Some of hte potholes that hadn’t been patched could be better described as caverns!
We hated it. We searched left, then right, and then maybe int he lane, then maybe jsut on the white line and found no smooth road. Short sections of repaving, maybe just a few 10 yards long were like the rare bit of candy as a kid. We loved the smooth road. When we had it we relished in the smooth roll. When we lost it we were bumbed out.
Most of the afternoon went this way.
Adding injury to insult, after the mornigs rains I had gotten mud in my pedal cleats and it became really hard to clip out. At one point i was was working so hard to clip out, that I strained my right achilles! Not wanting to go through that pain again, I was trying to baby it along. But with all the bumps I felt every last bump.
In the afternoon the clouds startd to rebuild and we were expecting another storm. Riding with Kari and Alison, we all decided to get something warm to drink at the gas station, mid-day check point. Hot cocoa, the every fabulous PB&J and some fruit were enough to get us on our way up some of the tough late ride hills.
One hill in particular would have beena great downhill blast if the road had been any good. As it was we Ka-chunked the whole way down.
Finally at bottom our route turned us onto a lovely country road that took us down a side valley and lead us into town. We had a slight downhill and a truly spectacularly smooth road. No traffic. It was the perfection of a ride! I was pulling for Alison who then had the added advantage of know head wind. It was a wonderful ride... and it almost made up for the Ka-chunks... Almost.
Getting in close to town, I saw Toronto Dave miss a turn, and when he didn’t hear us yell, I sprinted up to catch him and flag him down. I would have hated to see him get lost or do any more miles than necessary. Sprinting however max’d out my achilles and so the final 7 or 8 miles into town were just really painful.
The light at the end of the tunnel was that we were staying in dorms for just the one night and so we didn’t need to set up our tents or sleeping bags.
Dinner in the cafeteria was a rare taste variance of Open faced turkey sandwiches with Mashed potatoes. Mixed withthe Mashed potatoes, it was deliecious and I went back for 3rds.
In the end, the day had a little of lot of many different things. Weather, Roads, gob Bad, Sunny, rainy, ugly and blissfully beautiful.
Not quite a day of extremes, but certainly a day of variation.
Please comment. and I am taking suggestions on Essences for the today.
1 comment:
I am sure you are seeing the differnt value states put into their roads. The sounds you illustrated just made me smile. They do get rough on you when doing long miles. Sounds like you had a fun pull with the wind. I hope that tendon healed for you. I will look at the newer posts to see if you comment. Sounds like you are having a great time.
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