One down, eleven to go…

By John Straffin | Published: 21 January 2009

I did it. I rode from Durham to Burlington to Roxboro and back to Durham. See?

Welcome to Burlington[caption id="attachment_70" align="aligncenter" width="150"]Welcome to Roxboro[/caption]



I got started much later than I had planned (8:15AM vs 7:00AM), which meant I finished after sundown. Not a disastrous turn of events, but definitely non-optimal. Riding in the dark in the morning is definitely less harrying than riding in the dark at night.

It was also much warmer than I had planned. This I had no problems with whatsoever. It started out as cold as I expected—around 32° F—but went all the way up to 49° F by 4:00PM, at least 7° warmer than I had prepared for. The fact that I was generally comfortable, leaning towards chilly, throughout the ride tells me that I had not actually prepared for the temperature I was expecting and that God took pity on me.

Honestly though, I didn’t expect it to be this cold:Frozen Fountain, seen along US-70 near Haw River, NC

The overall ride was fairly uneventful. Some thoughts…

  • For some unknown reason, I felt the need to explain to each of the cashiers I “met” why it was that I needed a receipt. Only the first one seemed to care at all, and he actually remembered me when I saw him at the end of the ride (it being a loop and all, the last stop was the same as the first). Of course, dressed as I was in helmet-hair, clear cycling glasses, 3/4-finger cycling gloves, a day-glo yellow safety vest, sweats, a windbreaker, and neoprene shoe-covers, I was probably pretty hard to forget!
  • I still hate racing dogs. Not as in “I hate greyhounds”… rather, “I hate pedaling for all I’m worth when I’m already tired to avoid having to kick blindly at the head of an idiot canine who seems to find me threatening and is chasing me for all they’re worth.” To make matters worse, the new shoe-covers make it a bit more difficult to free my shoes from the pedal-clips, so the kicking part, were it needed, would be hit-or-miss. (Get it? “Hit-or-miss”? Golly, I crack me up…) Thankfully, this only happened once this trip and I had enough gas left in my tank to outpace the dog… no kicking necessary.
  • Two days later, my knees are still not pleased with me, particularly the right one. Perhaps I should start a glucosamine and chondroitin regimen? Perhaps not.

So, that’s January. Any suggestions on where I should go for February? I’m thinking Virginia, possibly Danville. :)

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  • Elsewhere in the `tubes…