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.