Despite the forsecast, the sky had depicted accutarely that thre would be no rain in the night. We woke to a beuatiful sunrise nad a mild morning.
Not exactly refreshed, I was at least willing to battle another day of miles on the bike. Not wanting to be alone again I made a point to ride with Scott, Alison and Kari. The company was appreciated. Nothing spectaluar and now real earth shattering conversations but it was just good to be back with friends.
The roads were covering more rolling hills. We were starting to make jogs around farms and at times found oursleves puzzled as we took on significant westbound mileage. For and easterly trip we were heading an awful lot towards the west. But alas we rode on.
We were perfecting our corn field potty stops. With no tree for cover or other bushes we were forced to go a few rows back into the corn. At this point we are all fairly cavalier about our bodily needs. The guys are to the point where we just pull over to the side of the road, wait till there is no traffic and pee while still stradling the bike. The girls still are heading into the cornfield, but even now they are opnly going 2 or 3 rows deep versus 5 or 6. There have been a few times when the girls just go int he ditch and shout out “No peeking” Itis pretty funny how nonchalant we all are about the whole thing.
It is also amazing how quickly you can disappear into a cornfield. We will watch each other in these bright red and yellow jerseys walk into the field and within 2 rows you are pretty well hidden, within 3 rows you disappear completely and there is no sign you are there. I can now see why cornfields have been portrayed as a hiding place for spooky things.
As we neared Illinois, the weahter started to turn threatening or rain. As we entered a small town on the border, the rain started. Welcome to ILLINOIS
Illinois always embodied my visualization of a mid-west, coal state with acid rain, where al the cars were rusty, the buildings seemsed dirty, etc. Now I know that isn’t fair or the real truth of Illinois, but that is how it seemed to me. So when we entered Illinois and this sign was the the Welcome sign at this rusty bridge in a very industiral area, my whole false vision seemed confirmed.
After a quick water stop and goofing around with Greg Dimmitt
We headed on down the rain and into the rain. The rain started light and built up but was really ever only rain without any hail, lightning or thunder. Paceline riding style and tactics changed in the rain. With wet breaks, we lost stopping power na dthus increased our distance between ourselves. However this then meant that you were eating the “rooster tail” of water and grime that was being kicked up off the trear tire from the person in front of you. To avoid this oh so pleasant beverage, we all separated a bit further but then we were so far back that the wind resistance was pounding us and the advantage of paceline riding was completely lost.
One tactic we could use was to ride just off to the side of the ride in front of you, so as to let the “rooster tail” go by you. We lost some of the Aero dynamics of the group and this did make us a wider presence in traffic, but it worked well enough on country roads.
I finally got my first inconvenient flat from a tenacious piece of glass. Up till now, all my flats had been in camp or at rest stops and was fairly easy to change. The rain had let up and we were riding on a bike path whhen I was attacked by this chunk of glass and it mortally wounded my tire. After a rpetty quick change we are off on the road ... and then the rain resumed in full force with Lightning and thunder.
Along with rooster tails, rain riding presents a whole new sets of challenges. First you now have to find a reasonably dry solution for your paper map that is this accessible and readible while in the saddle. My map holder, has a tear and a leak up in the upper corner so eventually even my maps are wet and I often have the driest maps. In addition to keeping your maps dry, it is also dificult to read them, because of either Fogged up sunglasses or so much water ont he lenses that we can’t see the words. Also difficult to read are our bke computers, which gives us teh mileage and thus indicated to us where we are at on the route guide.
Other rain hazards are of course the spary coming off of passing cars and trucks but a little more personally, the seat conditions wet shorts create. Keeping our shorts dry is VERY important to prevent saddle sores. 3 hours of riding in the rain in wet shorts pretty much negates any preventive measures that we have taken. All in all rain riding is not so much fun, it las lots of challenges and as a result is very stressful especially after hours at a time.
With soaked socks, soaked shoes, wet shorts and gritty faces we were happy to finally get to camp.
Camp was at “Outdoorworld” a KOA type commercial camping place that is more like a park than a forest. I was really looking forward to getting to camp and being able to grab some dry clothes and just change without needing to shower first. When we got there though Pollie wasn’t there yet so we had to wait for the gear truck and dry clothes.
Pollie finally arrived and while we unloaded the truck, she arranged for us to setup camp underneath the large metal roofed covered porch. We still set up our tents but as we were looking looking out from under teh shelter we were all fantastically happy to be under the shelter and not be exposed to the rain directly.
Sometimes it is the small dry things that make us happy.
Dinner became a bit of a disaster. The camp catered dinner, and had several ladies cookng back in the kitchen. Spaghetti was the menu choice and we were served only medium sized portions. We weren’t allowed 2nds and that was when a few words were exchanged. It turned into a stand off, with mad cooks who wouldn’t talk to Pollie and 45 hungry riders all looking for food or a solution to our appetites. Pollie didn’t discount our concerns or those of the camp and would up ordering something like 10 pizzas to fill us up, but it was one of those days that by the end Pollie was was worn out and was ready for it to be over.
Somedays you are just ready for it to be over.
I was at least to happy to have electricity, a dry seat and a place to set up the computer and write some blogs while I waited for the Pizza.
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