Tour de Kota: Day 1 - Sioux Falls to Mitchell

After surviving my nephew's wedding and a trip to Monk's House of Ale Repute with Snakebite, Hellimat and his girlfriend on Saturday night, we drove out to the starting point of the ride. The sky was filled with lightening and we barely got the van situated for sleeping arrangements when the sky started to let loose. As we cozied up in the van we were thankful that we were in a "leak proof tent" that we didn't have to take down in the morning. It rained about three times on and off during the night and the morning was cool and humid, but it ended up being a nice day of riding.

The plan was to rally at the Irish Pub in Montrose with Snakebite and thE kErnEl in the morning. I left solo from Sioux Falls and hammered at a pretty good pace. When you leave a little later, this becomes a sporting event as all the slower riders who got out early become excellent bunnies for you to chase down.

My frustrations mounted when people were riding four abreast, up a steep hill, with cars behind them. I was literally screaming "CAR BACK!!" at the top of my lungs as they merrily went on their way, not moving over. I was so torqued off that as I rode by the one group I said "YOU guys are part of the reason that motorists hate bicyclists". It may have been rude and I'm sure that they took offense, but I had to tell them how I really felt about their lack of caring. Just because you are on a tour does not give you the right to be a complete ass and act like no "laws of the road" apply to you.

Life was much better once that traffic was cleared. I bypassed Hartford dreaming about a cold brew or two at the Irish Pub in Montrose, conveniently owned by my brother and sister in law (for the next month anyway). I caught up with Dave H. and Brent A. (fellow MS Bike Tour riders for Team Road Kill) and decided to hang with them for a bit. Snakebite called me when I was hitting the McCook County line and said he was in Hartford and I said I was nearly to Montrose and would wait there. A couple miles later, Laura called me and said that the Pub was still closed. Apparently the wedding was too much and they couldn't find anybody to open. Bummer. So we ate at the high school where they were raising funds for the pool and headed on our way. The breakfast burrito was way good gals! The hard boiled eggs were good too, but the Coke/boiled egg burp I produced down the road I could have done without.

As we were nearly in Salem, Snakebite called again (oops, forgot to call him back) and stated that the Pub was closed. Yup, knew that, moved on. Told him we were about to Salem and that we were going to roll on and I'd hook up in Mitchell with him. We pulled into Salem's park where they had tons of food. However, after just eating ten miles ago, I wasn't quite ready to eat so I waited for Dave and Brent and then we rolled on.

We stopped at a rest area at Spencer where I met up with an old friend from Jaycees. After short pleasantries we rolled on once again. Dave and Brent stopped near Farmer and I told them I was going to roll on and I turned the last 18 miles into a pretty decent hammerfest.

It was a great day of riding as there was very minimal wind which is so rare in South Dakota. I also got to meet up with a friend that I worked with at USD and his new wife and we went out to eat after Laura and I showered at their place. The eating part deserves, and will receive, its own separate post. Let's just say it was a less than impressive story in the history of good customer service.

Vacation Time!!!!

I'm off work in 22 minutes until June 16th. It will be nice to get out and meet friends old and new on Tour de Kota next week. One of my nephews is getting married this Saturday as well so we are just packing up and staying over in Sioux Falls for the departure of TdK.

I'll try my best to blog from the road. We will try to hide from Patrick Lalley a little better this year so he doesn't give away secrets to the world like Laura setting up a massage table for a select few friends. Geez, it's hard to get privacy in a city park. Who'da thunk?!?!?!

In the Nick of Time

I just posted about my new Tandem Bike Rack being installed a couple days ago. The following could either be considered a jinx or a great timing.

Last night Marissa had a softball game in Elk Point. We had a friend's Mom take her down to the game and we rode the tandem. The wind was blowing, not hard, but hard enough where it was all we could do to hold 15-16 mph for most of the trip.

We turned down the street that the ball field complex is at and of course the one she played at was on the OTHER side of the complex. We did a little gravel and off road riding to get to our destination.

After the game and getting rained on just a little, we hopped back on the tandem and was cruising out of Elk Point at 18-20 mph when I asked Laura "What's that noise"? At first I passed it off as a "tandem noise I yet to understand" or "just the noise of the road". Then I realized what it really was...the back tire was going flat.



This was not a well planned trip by Mr. and Mrs. Brady:
1. No spare tube
2. No Scabs
3. No pump
4. The usual person to pick me up in such a situation was riding with me.

We ended up calling Laura's Mom to go get the van and come rescue us. This of course happens ONE DAY after installing the tandem mount so we had some luck on that side. The downside was that it started to rain on us. By the time I was loading up the tandem, it was raining pretty darn good too!

We only ended up getting about 19 miles of the 30 mile trip in, and Laura didn't get to enjoy the wind-at-our-back portion of the trip, but she never got upset about the happenings. She already has the roll with the punches bicycling attitude. Thus proving once again that she's a good trooper and that she is going to be a great cyclist in time.

Brilliant!

Why didn't I think of this?



After all the tag line to my emails duly states: It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity.

Nice Rack!

..or racks as the case may be. I now have my ToPeak Rack to go with my ToPeak bag. This was the second attempt as the first one didn't work due to the disc brakes. I'm ready for some touring with the tandem now!



Next was the installation of the Rocky Mount Tandem Rack. I must say that once I got it in the right location that it's an excellent rack. It brags of being a "one man solution" for loading a tandem. Well, it is possible, but it's awkward. As you can see in the picture below, you can rotate the front pivot so you can tighten the front down before lifting the bike. However, tandems are HEAVY. I may not be the strongest dude out there, but lifting and rotating the tandem by yourself is awkward. Maybe with practice I can figure out a better way. It is a great rack and I have no regrets with the purchase.



I also love the telescoping nature of the rack. You can shorten it for a normal standard size bike when you are not carrying a tandem.

Weekend Recap - Sunday

I was lazy. I knew we were going to go to Brunswick, NE to see Laura's grandparents so I decided I would ride part of the way and get picked up. I knew the course to Laurel well, and all the hills I would encounter so I decided to leave a little later thinking that's all my body would have in it after a longer, slower, butt-hurting Saturday ride. So, I left home at 8:40 am and headed across the border.

Amazingly I felt much better than anticipated and sat back at what I felt to be a comfortable pace as I rolled up and down the hills on Hwy 15 in Nebraska. Right as I was eying the city limits sign of Laurel, Laura called me on the cell phone. They were just getting ready to leave Vermillion after getting gas. I told her that after a brief stop that I was going to drive on and she could pick me up between Laurel and Randolph.

Apparently I was doing better than expected as I hit Randolph and still no sign of the Ford Deathstar. I called Laura and she was only about eight miles behind me so I decided that I would start disassembly of the bike and gear and just wait for her. Lessoned learned though. I blew a chance to get in another 20 miles or so because I didn't think I was ready. Silly me. Oh well it was still a good ride and an absolutely PERFECT riding day!

Weekend Recap - Saturday

A rare South Dakota treat happened this weekend: It was nearly perfect riding weather!! In an attempt to get some riders in the area out Saturday I chose to stay close to home instead of heading to Sioux Falls and riding with Snakebite and the boyz.

Laura and I had some miscommunication so I was waiting for her to get back from hitting early rummage sales but was unaware that she had made arrangements for Marissa to watch Carson for the short time she would be gone. As it closed in on our 8:00 departure I called CDV and told him to go on and I'd do my best to catch up. After talking to Marissa and learning of the earlier plan to watch her brother I finally got out the door about 8:15 and the hunt was on.

It's been fun this year running without any computers on the bike other than the Garmin that I run in my jersey pocket. I just run a comfortable pace and don't think about what I'm running for speed. That being said, I averaged over 20 mph into a slight (soon to be brisk) NW wind between Vermillion and Centerville as I attempted to chase down the rabbits group up ahead. I did so, but not until we hit Centerville city limits.

The bonus of catching CDV, Cycling Cathy, Ed F., and Chad P., was that the plan was to stop at the Royal Bake Shop. This brought back memories of my childhood and after all these years I almost habitually ordered one of their apple fritters that I loved as a kid. After a short stop it was off to Viborg into the ever increasing wind.

A brief stop in Viborg and then it was off to Irene. As we pulled into Irene we ran into three rollers who had left Centerville and was doing a similar route to us, just in reverse. I had seen them earlier in the day on my sprint up Hwy 19 to catch the group. We chatted for awhile and then it was off to Volin and the Volin Cafe for lunch. We mowed through lunch and then headed back towards Vermillion. Cycling Cathy peeled off and heading back to the thriving metropolis of Wakonda and the rest of us soldiered on.

Ed and I soldiered on to Bunyan's for an icy mug (or three)of liquid refreshment before Ed finished up a century on his way home to Burbank. Retirement is treating Ed well!

It was a great day of riding spent with cycling friends from the area. Now we just need more friends to join us. I'm sure people are still riding, they are just being anti-social as of late. As you can see from the following chart, it's not like we set a blistering pace. Considering I was around a 21mph average for the first 25 miles, I only ended up averaging 16.4mph. That means we were probably going 15 or so as we chatted and had a great ride.