Wed. 8/6/08

Two words come to mind to describe our Wednesday ride, "No Shenanigans". That's right, everyone behaved themselves, no Tom-foolery, or Jeff-Foolery, or Steve-foolery, or Marty-foolery, (you get the picture) and I think we all had a great time (even in spite of the rain).

We headed out under dark skies and didn't even get to the trail before we were hit with large, cold rain. Once we got on the trail, there were a few spots where we had shelter from the rain. As we got near Douglas the trail openned up abit and the rain was pretty steady. We met Jeff in Douglas and the group turned west for Genoa. About this time the rain stopped and we just had to deal with the wet roads (and the rooster tails from the bike ahead of you). Marty and Jeff S. held a nice steady pace up Genoa hill, then Big Jim and I lead the group up to the corner. From there we turned north for PI.

Again the group kept a nice steady pace into PI. We kept rolling east out of PI toward Mazeppa. Over the rollers, along a beautiful stretch of country road, then the rain started again (just for a few minutes), then it stopped again. At Mazeppa, no one needed to stop so we kept going east on hwy 60, then we turned SE on cty 7 for Chef's hill. The pace was again very steady and everyone took turns at the front. At the foot of the climb, Big Jim and Jeff G. were on the front (I think) and they held a nice steady ~14 mph tempo up the hill, so everyone hung together on the climb. Chef and family were on the deck as we rolled to the stop sign, we waved and yelled "Hello", then turned south on hwy 63 for home.

Everyone took turns and again the pace was nice and steady all the way to Rochester. Even the Rochester town signs were uncontested (I thought maybe Steve, Eric, and maybe one or two others would go for it, but they didn't, 3 Gold stars for each of them).

Great ride and in spite of the rain, I had a great time. Thanks everyone (Steve, Kristi, Marty, Big Jim, Jeff S., Al, Ben, Craig, Jeff G., and Eric). I finished with 62 miles and was home before dark.