Today was my first "century" of the season and I'm dedicating it to good friend and cross country roommate, Hank Darlington. Why, you may ask? I am currently the same age as Hank when he rode his bicycle 3,415 miles across the U.S. I know the effort it takes to do a mere 100 miles so to ride an average of 80 miles per day with 16 centuries for 7 weeks at that age is, in my view, nothing short of a miracle. Another miracle was he put up with me as his roommate for that time period. So I hereby nominate Hank for sainthood. Saint Hankster has a nice ring to it. Yep...just sayn.

On another note the good news is people from IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation) put a 2 foot asphalt shoulder from Goodfield to two miles west of Carlock about 7-8 miles. Great for bikers to get out of the way of traffic. Oops, what's this" Oh great. Rumble strips down the middle of the new shoulder making them relatively worthless for bicyclist. I realize rumble strips are placed on shoulders so drivers who veer off the road because of dowziness, cell phone use or other distractions can be alerted and avoid crashing. Okay enough crabbiness. It was an excellent day to do a century bike ride and I had a great experience.

 

 

As the weather continues it's up and down cycles I'm reminded of the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.  "This weather is too rainy and cold".A reason for not biking outside in the Spring.  Then "This weather is to hot and humid" as this weeks temps reached 97 with heat index of 110.  So, again, another reason for biking inside.  I was actually able to bike outside Sunday as "this weather is just right".    However, about 15 miles into the ride the sun came out and I realized I hadn't put sunscreen on my arms.  Continuing my planned route and risk sunburn on my arms or head back to the hacienda were my options.   Discretion being the better part of valor,  I turned for home.  Still rode nearly 25 mikes...not much of a ride but better than nothing.  

As mentioned in an earlier post, friend Jay on his ride from D.C. had to suspend his biking until last Sunday.  The good news is we met him at the Klondike Park campground near the town of Defiance Missouri.  He described out visit best in his blog.  " We meet up with my friends Champ and Ronnie, from a previous cycling adventure across Europe. All four of us head out to find dinner. After a thirty minute drive to find the restaurant closed, we find our way back to the local motorcycle bar near camp. It was loud with ZZ Top tunes and had lots of colorful folks. We had an an entertaining dinner!" Thanks for the "shout out" Jay.  It was great to see him.  Let's hope this weather settles down as I'm looking forward to my annual 100 mile ride to Champaign.  Later

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                                                     L-R Jay, Tom, Me

 Nothing special on the biking front.  Still no consistent weather for everyday outside biking.  Good news is we had the opportunity to meet up with Jay as he treks from Virginia to Denver.  As you may recall he organized the bike across Northern Europe  (EuroVelo 6 trail). We were to meet him in Edwardsville Ill. but it didn't work out so we met him in Klondike Park near Defiance Missouri.  He and his biking partner John were camping in the park.  The good news the shower and rest room facilities were near.  When we finally met him and after downing a brewski, Ronni and I took he and John out to eat. Since we brought the van there was plenty of room for everyone.   After driving about 25 minutes through hilly, forest like terrain, we finally arrived at the winery.  Looking forward to pasta dishes and wine, alas, it was not open when we arrived.  Actually, it closed 15 minutes before it's advertised closing time.  Therefore, we needed to find another eatery.  The closest place was Defiance.  It was ten minutes on route 94 and about 5 minutes from the park.  Oh well, it is what it is.  After a fine meal in a restaurant/bar that still allowed smoking we were back at the campsite.  I had forgotten that  Missouri still allowed smoking in their restaurants and I find it amazing it's still a thing.  Anyway, knowing they had a big biking day ahead with possible rain, we left them and made the drive back to Washington.  All in all a great time visiting with Jay.  And, of course, we forgot to take photos which is absolutely amazing in this day and age.  But still glad I had the opportunity to see him again.  Later