Sunday, October 27, 2013

My Fifty Friday turned out to be a Happy 100. And, this time it wasn't with a tailwind. Those who have criticized me for doing my 100 mile ride from Washington to Champaign, only if there is a tailwind, will now know I had a crosswind and a quartering headwind the entire way. Ha, that was not exactly the plan since the weather channel was wrong in its prediction of wind direction. Nevertheless, I decided to ride the 100 miles anyway. The good news is that there were no close calls with motorists, no one shouting foul insults with accompanying hand gestures, and no flat tires. All in all a good ride. That was the 5th century I've done since Spring. I will wait until next Spring before my next one. On another note, I was intrigued by the Africa ride from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa until I read Magic Mikes e-mail post. After he had inquired into the same ride he was told the major problems were "rocks being thrown at riders, kidnapping and being shot". I suspect that removed the intrigue for me. I still have the Great Alaska Highway on my list of rides but it's still in the planning stage.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Just returned from a week vacationing on the Outter Banks of North Carolina. I took my bike and rode many of the same roads we took on the East Coast Ride. I forget how much sand can get into the bike gears and how difficult it is to keep bike clean. Also, it got quite windy so, depending on the direction I would bike 20 miles into it then fly on the return with the wind at my back. All in all a great week of biking the coast of North Carolina