The world, and how it should work, according to John C. Straffin

This morning started out according to plan: I had done most of my packing the night before, the things I put up to dry inside had indeed dried, I got up in what seemed to be enough time. However, I still left later than I expected, at 8:10 or so. Not the best start to a ride that would likely take me over 7 hours.

Once on the road, things went along closer to my plan. I stayed a very short time at each rest stop and I went as fast as I could manage. Turns out I can manage 15 mph for about 7 hours. By the time I stopped today, I had gone 103.6 miles… my first ride of 100 mile or greater. I had taken some preventative Advil at ~70 miles, and feel like I should probably take some again now.

Wow… I’ll possibly add to this tomorrow… I’m having serious head bobs while trying to do this now… Yes… Tomorrow…

For the past two nights (and, by all indications, tonight as well), the outdoor campers (of which I am one) have been “serenaded” by the sweet sound of locomotives. Last night (and, again, by all indications, tonight), the trains passed through many nearby intersections, blaring their horns and whistles as they approached each one. I will definitely suggest, for future events, that they avoid towns wiith active railroad lines.

As far as the riding goes, today was great. 72 miles, 4 rest stops, 6 hours (including stops). Many towns/stops have had banners made and have met our arrival with enthusiasm and generosity. Our first stop this morning was not one of these. As far as I can gather, the church that was to be our host had sort of forgotten about it and had scheduled a funeral for this morning. The pastor called the police and threatened to have the already-delivered Porto-Potties impounded. The event organizers quickly rearranged things and set up a replacement stop at a much better place on the route (timing-wise), so it turned out for the best, but was kind of funny, in a sad sort of way.

Later in the day, we found ourselves on the shoulder of a six-lane highway that included a very long hill. Not an experience I would recommend, either for the level of traffic or the length of the incline.

Tomorrow, I must get up and out early if I am going to have time to attempt the 100-mile “Century” option. I expect that, with brief rest stops, it should take me around 8 hours, and I’d like to be dome at a reasonable time, so… G’night!

Leaving Lowes Motor Speedway also meant, thankfully, leaving some of the busiest traffic areas we’ve seen during the ride so far. This is a good thing. According to the Cycle NC Rider’s Handbook, tomorrow’s ride will be on much less travelled roads which should make for a much more enjoyable ride. Most drivers don’t know what to do with a bunch of cyclists. I’d rather have a car pass me a little too closely than have a car hover behind me for 10 minutes, unsure of whether they can pass me or not. In these situations, I can take my mountain bike off the road and let the unsure driver pass; the road bikes do not have that option available (more delicate tires and wheels). I like my mountain bike.

The steep mountain climbs have turned into rolling hills… don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. The rolling hills are far less steep, but they are much longer and don’t have nearly the speed-boost (or fun) on the other side. I’ll also no longer have the opportunity to power past the road bikes on the steeper inclines.

The 60 miles for today seemed short… not because they were easy (though I did consider blowing by one of the rest stops), but because it made for a fourth day of sub-average length rides. The whole trip is ~440 miles over 7 days, making each day about 65 miles on average. Methinks the next three days will be a bit longer than average… don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, either…

The terrain was flatter still on day three and the road was fairly rough in many places, slowing down my bike significantly and messing up many road bike wheels. Even with the rougher road, I still managed the 60 mile day with an average speed of 14.5 mph. Still very glad to be on a mountain bike.

Took a bunch of photos of this leg, but Flicker’s mobile performance is a giant pain, so I may wait until returning to post any more.

Arriving at Lowes Motor Speedway was awesome: this place is HUGE! Ended up doing four laps on the 1.5 mile racetrack, including one where I stopped at the bottom of the ridiculously steep banked turns, turned my bike 90 degrees, and rode straight up the side. Then came down and did it again. Then did it a few times at the other end. It was a lot of fun.

Again… pictures later…

Today was one of the shorter days, but it had some hills that rivaled day one, with one of the hills possibly surpassing it in length. I quite readily dispatched them with all due haste. (Forsooth!) I don’t know whether it was the mountain-bike-style gearing of my bike or the legs powering it (probably a measure of both), but I’ve been passing folks like crazy on the hills.

Now, on the downhills and (mainly) on the flatter areas, a road bike is gonna kick my tail. I was, in fact, playing “leap frog” with a few groups of road bikes today: I’d pass them on a hill, they’d pass me on the following downhill/flat area, I’d pass them on the next hill, and so on. I actually tried to hop on the end of a “pace line” of road bikes for a bit, but it was all I could do to keep up with them and fell away as soon as I decided to stop killing myself.

Turns out that, after supposedly fixing it before the ride started, my cyclometer was still overestimating my milage and (therefore) my speed. I checked my calibration with the numbers the REI mechanics had and my tire size was too big by about 5.75%. We’ll see what my numbers look like tomorrow, but here are the slightly inflated numbers for the last two days (I forgot to reset my cyclometer this morning):

(I would have corrected for the error in calibration, but the route I travelled the first day was actually longer than the official route for a number of reasons…)

(Insert witty segue here.)

I found out what true evil looks like today: it looks like a stop sign. A stop sign right before an uphill climb. A stop sign right before an uphill climb at a blind cross street (so you had to stop) that was also at the bottom of a glorious 3/4-mile downhill run. Forcing someone to turn all that kinetic energy into heat energy (by braking) is absolutely diabolical.

I also found out what true evil tastes like: it tastes like Amp Energy Drink (orange). Disgusting. Also disgusting is the number of small bugs that have flown into my mouth… I’ve really got to learn to ride with my mouth closed.

There’s more I wanted to say, but I’ve forgotten much of it and I’m nearly falling asleep while writing this so… g’night.