Tuesday, August 31, 2010

De rit, de ruiters, en de maaltijd

Press briefing:

Q: How was the epic ride this past weekend?
A: Great

Q: Any funny getting lost or the like stories?
A: Nope

Q: Was it of an impressive distance?
A: Not really.


Q: Did you go really, really, fast?
A: Not particularly.

Q: So what makes it so epic?
A: Epic in the sense of not being epic, which is to say ironically epic.


Q: Oy
A: That's not a question.

Q: Did you have any run ins with psychos in vehicles
A:  Yes, yes we did.

Q: Was one of the drivers certifiable?
A:  Yes, yes he was.

Q: Interested in giving details?
A: No, no I am not.  See below.

Q:Did everyone make it okay?
A:  More or less, one ritter suffered a bit.

Q: Are all the pictures below yours?
A: No, no they are not.


Executive summary
We left on time, had coffee in Cross Plains, didn't get lost, put up with a mildly annoying motorist and totally insane motorist, ate a bunch of food and drank a bunch of what have you. I rode both ways.

The ride was really nice there was enough wind to keep the temperature down, the roads are in great shape, lots of cyclists out and about on Old Sauk, and the hill as well as on Stage Coach, KP is newly paved, nearly all the motorists were sane and careful (see below). The one cyclist riding up the hill while talking on his cell gets the prize for weirdest behavior of the day.  It seemed as though he and the others were on some kind of a race-like situation and he was certainly giving it his all, but he just really needed to take that call. Got a little sunburned and Ando suffered from something, the current theory, unsupported by any facts and -- in fact contradicted by his own testimony, is an excess of bacon ice cream for breakfast. Opinions differed on the mustard effect and on the difference between medium rare and medium well by the two distinguished judges.  Surprisingly, Damon Runyon's theory of betting proved to not predict the outcome.  On the whole, however, a good time was had by all.


Incident reports:
Sad old guy in Illinois plated truck got the law wrong:

346.80(3)(a)      
(a) Persons riding bicycles or electric personal assistive mobility devices upon a roadway may ride 2 abreast if such operation does not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic. Bicycle or electric personal assistive mobility device operators riding 2 abreast on a 2-lane or more roadway shall ride within a single lane.

He generally behaved like a sad old guy riding an Illinois-plated truck would, which is to say like Schlecht. His dog seemed nice though.


We had stopped at the gas station in Arena and were just getting back underway.  We were in a single line when a maniac in a gold pickup with some kind of logo on the side turned the corner began honking his horn and screaming and then swerved missing us by a couple of inches.  He stopped up the road screamed some more and ran away in fear and trembling when Ben offered to discuss things in the open air.

Photos



Ready to Go


Pensive Participant

Last minute prep and kibbitzing


They look silly in lycra


Late entrant

Happy to be there


Wheee

Restricted Park

Cooling off


Made it


Fresh meat




Not quite enough burgers
Grill 'em

Full House

The kids today



Distinguished Judges

Wait, what?

Missed it by that much

3 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun day. It also looks like you used the In & Out Burger's secret recipe for burgers that I was telling you about-Dijon on the raw side. If so does it work?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Depends on who you talk to. I didn't notice any real difference but others did.

    ReplyDelete
  3. By the way California Bach this fine blog's initial post dealt effectively with the issue of mustarded burgers.

    ReplyDelete