Sunday, October 05, 2008

B2B Fall Colors Ride a Success

Success can be measured in many ways. In the case of this ride, success can be measured that nobody died, via biking or eating. Let it also be noted that the name of the ride may have to change to Bunyan's to Bob's to Bunyan's next year as too many people took Bunyan's to Bob's a little too literally yesterday. As in I was the only person who rode the complete distance both ways. It also eliminated the demons of failing to do so on the spring ride. Covering both ways by gravel really helped my confidence as well.

It was not QUITE as windy as the spring B2B ride, but it was still brutal enough. The beauty this time was having the wind on the way back. It was very much appreciated as I was starting to hurt pretty good on some of those climbs with a back that was tightening up.

I would also like to have a discussion with the Dixon County, NE Road Grader crew. Can you PUH-LEAZE figure out how to use that wonderful piece of machinery without turning most of the road into a washboard?

Coming down one of the gravel hills on the way back at 30+ mph I hit some of that washboard road and thought for SURE I lost something. I felt my jersey pockets: Camera, check. Money clip, check. Garmin, check. Hmmm...I guess I'm okay. Some four miles later I reached down and one of my water bottles was gone. This was NOT good as I was still 10 miles from Vermillion and only had about two swallows of water left. Luckily I survived, albeit a little parched when I got home.

Without further ado, the Garmin readout and pictures from B2B Fall Colors. It was a great time. We will try to schedule this in the Spring and Fall again next year. Maybe by then CDV will be recovered enough to get back on the mountain bike.



No B2B ride should start without a Bunyan's Bomber.





In the beginning, everybody had smiles. They wouldn't last.


Letsche and Voss were going over the bridge as I was coming under.



Letsche shooting down at me going under the bridge.



Looking back to South Dakota.



Harvesting is well underway.





Let there be (large portions of) food and fellowship!







It's all downhill (well mostly) from Newcastle back to Vermillion.

5 comments:

CDV said...

I'm up for a mountain bike ride today, BUT, not that particular road. Was there fall colors, all I could see was white knuckles, loose gravel, and wash-board. I still had FUN!!

DIRK said...

Wish I could have been there. I spent the day with my in-laws. Couldn't skip that, I am in a lot of trouble over the new bike, too.

I will be there in the spring.

Unknown said...

Glad I made it to this ride and glad I took the oil road! It was a lot of fun! But I am looking forward to riding the Turkey Creek road between the bridge and Newcastle hopefully sometime soon but I am definitely not going any further!!

Unknown said...

I see the picture with me in it had me talking about Tim and his non-eating fingers. Joe and Abby will know what I am talking about.

As far as the ride (drive) goes, it was a nice day for a drive. :-)

Anonymous said...

Sorry I missed that ride and fellowship, but not sorry I missed the wind and hills again. The grader operator could easily fix the washboard (my Dad ran the grader for years in our township) but it requires stopping, backing up, and going over the spot again. Hence, they don't want to do it. Dad used to say, "I was a road grader operator, now they are road grader drivers, they have no pride in their work."