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DAY 15

Yankin' and Bankin' with the A team

DAY'S OVERVIEW: Seems like I've been on a long day schedule.  Jim and I are riding every other day and for the last week, I've ridden 90, 90, 100, etc., while he's ridden 65, 72, 58...get the picture.  That sits fine with me lately as I've finally gotten the A-team (Tom, Tore, Jill, and Judy plus Karen added this morning) to wait on me in the morning...they did this morning and we had a great century...lots of navigation and turns but we still finished in well under 5 hours.  Throughout the day we would pick up someone who would jump on our train for a stretch and for awhile we even had the tandems in our group.  With all work being shared by all, the time went by fast and so did the miles...on a perfect day, perfect conditions, and great company.  It's great riding with a group who ride as well as the A-team.  It makes the miles go by as we all get lost in maintaining the pace while drafting in close proximity to other riders in the group.  We even had a time or two when we cranked up the pace pretty briskly...I haven't ridden like this all summer...LOVE IT!  Thanks gang for letting me hang in there with you today.

Our ride today took us out of Rocky Mount quickly to the back roads of North Carolina and since it was Labor Day weekend, the traffic was almost nil all day.  I hope we don't get in the middle of everyone coming home tomorrow...we'll deal with that tomorrow for today we enjoyed great pavement and low traffic.  I've come to the conclusion that cycling would be great everywhere if the traffic was like this...oh well, I can dream.  But as I think of it, if the gas prices go much higher, maybe we'll see more bicycles on the road for everyday travel.

About the only challenge today for the riders was trying to figure out where things were in the new van we have for support.  We now have a gold van that is supporting SAG instead of the Box and it isn't configured like Silver...water, hand cleaning materials, and sign in sheets were in the side door instead of at the rear door like they are used to.  I guess it should be considered a brain exercise to keep them alert.  But it was funny to watch everyone walk around the van and finally asking the staff where the heck everything was...they'll thank us someday for the variety.

It was good to see everyone have such a good day on the road...we needed it after all the long days in Maryland and Pennsylvania.  Everyone pedaled the 100 miles today in the time they were getting to lunch in the hilly section...it does great things to the spirit when everyone considers a century an easy day.  The only hang up was, it was so easy we got in too early for our rooms to be ready.  I'm sitting here in the lobby typing today's page waiting for my room.  Seems being the holidays, they were full last night and several rooms were not vacated until late.  Oh well, it's always something.  No one seemed to mind as they sat around the lobby waiting for their name to be called...like winning the lottery.  Funny thing, the front runners got in and unloaded luggage but the late riders' rooms were ready when they came in while the early riders sat by watching them prance off into their room. 

It finally got all sorted out and everyone got settled before maintenance and rap.  Tomorrow we ride to Whiteville and one day closer to our next day off in North Myrtle Beach, but the way the riding is going right now, I'm not sure if anyone wants to stop.  We'll see...I think the call of the beach may over ride the desire to ride at least for one day.  See you tomorrow.

HEARD ON THE ROAD:  "My room's for sublet...$5 for a shower, $10 for a nap."  Stu when he got his room before all the other people in the lobby.  "How 'bout you let us shower and we let you live!"  The response to his offer.

DUH! OF THE DAY:  Also goes to Stu...he was helping to unload luggage and he would start to pick up a bag and someone would say, I'll take that one, it's mine.  After this happened about 5 straight times he said, "Why is it every time I pick up a bag, it's someone else's?"  When I heard him say that, I couldn't resist the pimp, "Stu, that's the case except for only 2 bags on the truck...yours!"  Hmmm...sometimes revelations just pop out of nowhere.

NOW THAT JUST AIN'T RIGHT REVELATION: Today goes to Mike S. who had a minor malfunction on her new bike today.  She was just riding along when all of a sudden she heard this grinding noise and her pedaling seemed to be getting harder.  Upon a most casual inspection of her new bike, she found her luggage rack on the back had come loose from her seatpost and had rotated back until it was dragging on the road.  Immediately she realized...That just ain't right.  John W. happened along and quickly agreed with her assessment.  He jerry rigged it to the seatpost so it would stay off the highway until she could find our mechanic.  Nice job John.

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