Only 6 days left until the Big Ride! Fund raising has been proceeding apace and the family is in the Franconia Notch area of the White Mountains of NH for a week.
It's beautiful up here, but the weather is being a little contrary. I managed to get in a 25mi "down and back" ride down from our place at Mittersill down the bike trail/rt 3 to N. Woodstock. It's a really fun ride; the ride down is mostly downhill (top speed was 46 mph from "The Flume" to Lincoln on rt 3). The ride back up is not for impatient... As such, I made my usual stop at the Woodstock Inn to rebalance my electrolytes -- I highly recommend the Red Rack Ale -- and grab a bite before heading home.
On the long hill back up out of Lincoln I caught up with a couple on bikes up from CT for the week. They were diligently pedaling up to The Flume. Turns out the husband had a recumbent bike sort of like mine at home (a Linear, see
http://www.linearrecumbent.com/) -- but he couldn't ride it with his wife since always worried about him crashing on it. I shared a little joke with him: since I was riding my R40 (with the underseat steering) and was already "over my handlebars", the 2nd scariest part of any crash was always over and out of the way... His wife was not amused. I will never understand women.
Further up the trail, most of the way to Cannon Mountain, I came across a family stopped alongside the trail, looking concerned back at the Dad. Turned out that Dad's rear brake pad was flopping loose and he was trying to figure out how to tighten it -- not possible without an allen wrench. Since I never go for rides any more without tools, tubes and CO2, I was able to fix his brake and get them on their way. I told them it was a good thing they stopped, because they were really going to need their brakes in about 1/2 mile or so. (There are some steep, curvy hills on that bike trail, and it's easy to let your bike get going too fast and run off the trail or worse yet hit some other biker or hiker.) Also reminded them to give the bike rental place a real good talkin-to when they picked then up at the bottom of the trail, since brakes should have been *thoroughly* checked out for them when they rented them at Cannon Mountain. That was my good deed for the week. I still made it back to the timeshare in time for Mojitos and book time by the pool...
Planned a big ride on the Bacchetta this AM, but only got out about 10mi before I called it quits. The weather was just not cooperating today: drizzly, winds gusting to 20mph, and threats of hail in Franconia. I just stayed out long enough to get the Bacchetta wet and gunky from the road. I spent more time cleaning it up than riding today... Tomorrow will be the big ride, whatever the weather.
Sandy laminated my "passengers" pictures so they'll make it through the PMC OK, no matter what the weather. When we get back home, I'll try to post a picture here of the bke with my "passengers" in place and ready to go.
I know I've said it before, but will keep saying it: thanks to all of you for your support for the PMC and cancer research & treatment. With your help we really do keep getting closer by the mile. Thanks
/doug
