A Blast From The Past: Carefree Century 2026

"Feeling gratitude and not

expressing it is like wrapping

a present and not giving it."

William Ward

 

I am excited about this ride.  I have not done it for years, perhaps ten years or more.  Nobody seems to be positive about the first or last time it was on the TMD schedule. I am fairly certain it was never offered as a century without also being a stage. 

 

Sometimes it seems we keep riding the same roads, the same courses, year after year without giving them a break and time to renew themselves.  For some, that is great.  There is a comfort in the familiar and in repetition.  For others, not so much.  While these roads will not be new to me, with my course memory and not having ridden them for years, they will seem new and I am looking forward to it.  I am grateful to Bob for pulling this one out of archives, taking the time to drive it, and then putting it on the schedule.  While I know it is not aimed at me specifically, it still feels like a gift.  

 

We are doing the Carefree Century, in my  opinion the crowning century achievement of Cathy Hill and Kirk Roggencamp.  Per an email from Cathy to Bob, they came up with the route following a paid ride they did in Derby.  One day they parked in the truck stop and took off riding. Part of the route had to be re-routed due to store issues leading to the present day route. I suspect that was following the year when it was extremely hot out and we got to the third store stop, out of water and thirsty, only to find it was closed and there was no where to refuel or to fill water bottles that were already dry. Anyway,  it will be nice to revisit the route despite knowing that it contains climb after climb.  I've often thought that it would be a wonderful out and back course because of the beauty of the first half of the ride, but I change my mind this time round.  I just like this route, all except the slog through Tell City, and it is short and one of those, "You have to eat somewhere if you're riding a century" roads. 

 

It is a drive to the ride start and I wonder how many will show.  It is supposed to be or be near 90 degrees:  the first truly hot day of the year.  And the humidity is supposed to ramp up.  Plus, there is the price of gas, the closed expressway, and the distance to the start.  Bob said he thinks he may get 9, but he ends up with 17 riders:  Jon Wineland, Vince Livingston, Jeremiah Westendorf, Dave King, Zach Colman, Thomas Nance, John Dippold, Fritz Kopatz, Robert Barrett, Mike Kamenish, Stephen Meredith, Steve Rice, Glenn Smith, Larry Preble, Joel Gano, Bob, and me.  Steve Meredith has just completed two six hundred K brevets over the prior two week-ends.  Dave King completed a six hundred K last week-end.  I am rather surprised to see them, but happy they are here.  Again the only woman.  I believe Jon Wineland drove the longest distance:  one and one half hour to get there.   

 

Briefly I think of other great centuries that used to grace the TMD schedule that required long commutes:  the Green River Century is Cambellsville, Kentucky that Jim "Grizzly" Moore used to host and "Best of the Bluegrass," another Kirk and Cathy route that was, I believe, last hosted by Carla "Stormy" Dearing.  (I know Carla married but don't know if she retained her last name or changed it).   Some of the old centuries were wonderful routes but somehow they fell by the wayside.  Some, like Honest Abe, fell for a reason such as traffic. We are also doing the Lawrenceburg Loop this year, one we have not ridden for quite some time.  Thanks, Dave, looking forward to it. 

 

When I retire it seems the Mad Dogs will become a boys club.  There are women that are strong enough to join or replace me and ride for a number of years, such as Sharon last year (who I could not come close to keeping up with), but they just seem to have no interest.  Perhaps, as Steve Rice once said when I was speculating about why more women don't ride distance, "They have better sense." But hopefully I can hang on for a few more years.  Time will tell. No need to develop good sense at this point in my life I suppose.   Meanwhile I remain grateful of their acceptance of me since I am almost inevitably at the back of the pack anymore. The men have all be so encouraging despite my concerns about the slowness and weakness that age inevitably brings to all of us. 

 

At the start there is some concern about the parking and whether we would be okay or would come back to find our cars had been towed, but we end up being okay. (At least my car was there waiting at the end).  After giving Bob grief about this and anything else we can come up with (including a long introduction discourse;-), we head out on our adventure. Most of the riders have never ridden these roads.  They are in for a treat.  Bob has warned them about the course and not heading out too fast as the hills are relentless all the way through.  I think everyone listened because most of them will still be there when Bob and I reach the first store stop in Derby.  

 

The hills begin and they really don't stop much during the ride.  There are a few flatter sections where one can fly, but relatively few. There are, however, also some delicious downhills and I have to remind myself of my own advice to use caution on  the descents one is unfamiliar with, in this case all of them.  For a moment I find myself thinking about what would happen with a sudden front puncture, but I quickly drive that from my mind knowing how it can spoil an otherwise great descent.  Instead I concentrate on turns, how to enter them, weighting my pedal (thank you, Eddie Doerr, I still remember your admonishments on this), and all the other details that help to keep me safe.  Cycling is, without a doubt, a dangerous sport, but so is life.  We all chose our risks and then live with them.  

 

Bob and I are soon at the back by ourselves only to come upon one of the breath taking Ohio River overlooks where a group has stopped to take photos.  They quickly re-pass us, however, leaving us trailing far behind.  I am determined to ride conservatively and enjoy the day rather than suffering and wondering about my ability to finish  the hills on 62.  I truly hope Bob is okay with this.  I can only go by what people say, and some will say they don't mind just to be polite, but I think Bob was telling the truth.  I have no trouble doing the climbs, but I am very slow on steep climbs anymore.  The weight to strength ratio just is not there.  But, I remind myself, it is NOT a race.  And I am grateful I can still climb.  My legs always did whine a bit and they will do so today.  I guess it is good to know some things never change. 

 

 

The store comes back to me when we arrive.  It is quite well stocked and gives the feeling of being from times past.  The woman manning the cash register could not have been friendlier adding another smile to a day already filled with smiling faces.  There are chairs in front of the store and a covered shelter next to the store.  It is across the street from the bar I remember stopping at one of the first times this century was offered.  The bar appears to still be in business, but does not appear to be open this early.   

 

 

 Since I am already the slowest on this ride, I don't stop to take photos, but I can't help thinking that this would be a nice century to ride alone and just meander along slowly and stopping often to take photos.  I am trying to see everything in case it is the last time I pass this way, but I know that I am missing as much as I take in.    I anticipate keeping Bob out on the road longer than he would be otherwise though I DID offer to start early and he declined.  The views of the river, the orange day lilies, AKA ditch lilies,  that line the road, the daisies, so bright and cheerful, scattered randomly here and there along our way, and the beginning of the black eyed Susan's grace my eyes and make my heart sing and ache.  For it is already June.   Where does time go?

 

 I also think, and mention to Bob, that this course would likely be spectacular in the fall.  I love it when we get to the locks and Cannelton.  We pass so many interesting things.  On the right of the road, away from the river, we pass a tall rock with three cinder blocks:  one is painted white, one red, and one blue.  I wonder if it is to mark flooding somehow.  There is a sign at one point that shows how high the river was various years when it flooded.  I keep thinking how much I am missing as I ride, and not because I am incessantly chattering as is sometimes the case.  (Yes, yes, I know that is hard to believe but it is true;-)

 

Bob tells me to pick where we eat.  I originally say DQ but then notice a couple of bikes at Arby's.  It turns out to be Dave King and Steve Rice.  Steve tells me there are a few that have had lunch and gone, but not the majority.  After Dave and Steve leave, we see the others pass while we are eating.  We don't rush, finish our meal, and head back out.  The clouds are gone.  It is now almost pure sunshine, and the heat ramps up with the passing of the clouds. We also have mostly a tail wind which is great for pace, but not so great for heat reduction.  Still, neither Bob nor I are normally particularly sensitive to heat as some have the misfortune to be. I don't ride as well in heat as I did when younger,  but it does not typically bring me to my knees. 

 

Of course, like most centuries, the lunch stop is followed by a climb that makes one wish one had eaten just a bit less, but that thought fades.  Close to the third store stop, we come upon two riders, one of whom is having heat issues.   I tell them I am going to get to the top of the climb before stopping, but once there I see everyone has resumed.  The pace, however, has slowed even more and I find myself pulling ahead with Larry leaving Bob and another in the back.  Larry catches up with me and we decide to go to the store and wait there.  I am doing fine, but I am definitely thirsty.  Larry maybe even more so as he gave up half of a water bottle when he stopped to help. It will not do Bob or anyone else any good if we also begin to have issues.

 

Now if you have ever bonked on a ride, be it due to heat or another issue, you know it can difficult to determine the fine line that separates stupidity from grit, and a line that only you, the rider, can determine.  If your difficult is from heat and you lapse into heat exhaustion, my understanding is that you become more prone to recurrences of the same.  And if you have ridden much, you HAVE bonked.  If you have never bonked, you just haven't ridden enough.  Sometimes you know what causes it and other times not, but it is certainly an unpleasant experience when the tank runs dry and you have miles to go to reach your final destination.  

 

And when you have bonked, you probably felt embarrassed.  I know I have in the past, despite the fact there is no reason to feel embarrassment.  If you finish,  you need to tell yourself that  you had the courage to start and the courage to finish, and  the courage to finish when you are bonking and hurting is nothing to look down upon.  The same, however, with having the courage not to finish when it is not in your best interest phonically to continue.  Indeed, that may take even greater courage.  But we have all been there and felt each pedal stroke feeling as if were trying to drag a thousand pound gorilla behind us. 

 

When we reach the store, Glenn is there.  Glenn, Larry, and I leave together.  Bob has told us to go on without him, and while I feel a bit of guilt doing so, I still leave.  Bob just doesn't know what the other rider, who is on the line, will choose to do or how long it may be.  So Bob, and Larry for stopping,  embody the Mad Dog motto, "No dog left behind."  I tell Larry and Glenn to please not wait for me as I will be slow on these last hills one of which is about  two miles long and the other a mile and a half, but each time I see them stop and wait.  And we finish together.   Fritz is waiting in case Bob needs assistance.  But Bob doesn't.  They finish together despite the hills and the heat. 

 

Fritz waiting when I am sure he is tired and has other things he would rather be doing (like taking a shower to wash off the road and the sweat)  makes me think again how grateful I am for these people I ride with, people that will hang back with a rider who is struggling, as we all have done before if we have ridden for any amount of time.  People who take the time to plan and revive a route that is so beautiful in places that it can bring a tear of joy to the eye and makes me realize God's greatness.  Gratitude for these men who never complain (at least to me) about my slowness and go out of their way to assure me I am welcome to ride with them when I know I keep them  out on the road longer than they might like to be. And so, I tell each and every one of you that have ridden or that ride in the tour, thank you.  You guys rock.....almost as much as bicycles and new roads;-)  Thanks, Bob, to you particularly again for pulling this one out of the dust bin  and making it live again.  I am so blessed to ride with all.  

 

Finishers were as follows:

 

Jon Wineland        Group of 1        Finish Time:  3:02 p.m.

Vince Livingston        Group of 1     Finish Time:  3:09 

 Jeremiah Westendorf    Group of 1    Finish Time:  3:15

Dave King        Group of 7           Finish time 3:48

Zach Coleman        Group of  7

Thomas Nance    Group of  7

John Dippold        Group of 7

Fritz Kopatz        Group of 7

Robert Barrett    Group of  7

Michael Kamenish        Group of 7

 Stephen Meredith        Group of 1    Finish time 4:03

Steve Rice            Group of 1         Finish time:  4:10

Glenn Smith        Group of 3        Finish time: 4:20

Melissa Hall    Group of 3

Larry Preble       Group of 3

Bob Grable:  Group of 2    Finish time:  4:54

Joel Gano   Group of 2    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hardinsburg TMD Stage 2026

"Life belongs to the living, 

and he who lives must be prepared

for changes."

Goethe 

 

I was not sure if I was going to write up this century or not, having ridden it solo so recently, so when Fritz asked if I was and said he would withhold the stats, I told him to go on and publish them.  The stats, for those that don't know, are the finishers, how many stages they have completed,  and how many points they earned and the standings at the end of the century, for  this century was a Tour de Mad Dog stage.  It was not the planned stage.  I originally planned something easier and  somewhat new in how it would route, but as they say, "Man plans and God laughs."  God had different plans sending rain that would flood many of those roads and drive me to  a route that offered higher ground, less amenable to flooding.  Oh, well, there is beauty in hills, and they strengthen the legs and the lungs.  I grin briefly thinking of Harley saying that when he got his stents last winter, the doctor asked if he had not been breathing heavily on hills.  His answer, the truth, was that yes, but so was everyone else.  

 

But back to the route. I don't think these roads will be flooded as I have ridden them many, many times when there has been lots of rain, but it is always possible.  I have, a very few times, in years past ridden and found the roads in front of the park flooded. Last Thursday I rode to check those roads around Delaney Park that can flood, though not so easily as 700 or outside Medora, and to let Amos know we would be coming through if it is not raining.  Still there has been more rain since Thursday.  Indeed, I am amazed when it looks like rain chances are down to twenty percent most of Saturday after the morning hours.  I bite the bullet and make the decision early Saturday morning:  we will ride but I will delay the start time from 8 until 9 hoping the light rain will clear out.  There is no issue with delay this time of year, even with a century, for there is plenty of daylight hours to accommodate both slowness and mechanicals or the unexpected.  We still could get rained upon, but it is less likely and tomorrow allegedly offers not only rain, but thunder and lightening. 

 

With it being a holiday week-end, Horsey Hundred week-end (something I had not realized when I picked the date), and possibly rainy, I don't  expect many riders.  So I am surprised to find there are 15 of us.  Harley Wise, Larry Preble, Bob Evancho, Mark Rougeux, Steve Rice, Thomas Nance, Bob Grable, Glenn Smith, Jon Wineland, Mike Kammenish, Zach Coleman, Ben Hinnen, Jeremiah Westendorf, and Dave King all sign in.  Dave, of course, pulls in at the very last second  as has become  his trademark.  All around me are the sounds of people preparing for the day:  the sound of bicycle pumps filling tires,  the sound of bikes and brakes being tested, the nervous chatter of people readying themselves for an adventure.  For many, it will be their first time on this course.  Larry rounds people up for the traditional ride start picture.   In the pre-ride talk, I warn them of debris on the road from the rain and of not leaving everything on the pavement on Blue River Road because other than Leota Hill, the hills start after the first store stop on Shorts Corner.  

 

The group heads out but Dave and one other, Zach or Ben, I am not sure, are not ready.  (Ben and Zach, I apologize for not introducing myself or forgetting your name if I did).  I soft pedal until they catch me and we then pick up the pace to try to catch the group.  There is a pause at the bottom of Leota Hill as Zach or Ben lose their chain.  

 

We are with Mark at that  point and he tells me not to stay back with him.  He is trying to go slowly to see if it helps with a cramping problem he has had in the past.  And what a problem it has been for him.  In my mind I still see him near the end of one of my centuries falling over on his bike.  He had cramped to the point where he could not clip out and get off the bike.   I have been blessed with rarely cramping, and if I do it is normally in bed AFTER a long ride.  But I do cramp more now than I used to and have no idea if it is age related or caused by something else.  Regardless, I tell Mark not to worry.  I will be in the back sweeping.  (I don't mention that with this group, I would be in the back regardless;-)  Thomas Nance helped me a couple of years ago with the cramping problem on the bike by offering me a Tums.  And it seems to work for me.  

 

Chain fixed, Zach or Ben climbs Leota much faster than me.  He waits at the top but goes on to catch those who ride more his pace once he sees I am with Mark and not alone.  Mark and I ride together and Steve Rice drops back to ride with us.   Mark stops for a hydraulics issue,  and when he catches back up to us Steve tells him that I tried to get him to hide and let him pass us thinking he is chasing us.  I grin.  Some things never change.  It is nice to be teased.  It does not happen much any more and I actually miss it.  With three big brothers, I was teased mercilessly as a child and my husband took over that job when we married.  I do miss his sense of humor and how he could make me laugh.  All gone now.  There is nothing to do but to trudge forward, enjoying what you can while you can.  I think it was Gibran that wrote, "But life goes not backwards, nor tarries with yesterday." 

 

Shortly after the first store stop, on Shorts Corner, we come upon Harley Wise, Bob Grable, and Bob Evancho.  Harley has had a flat.  Steve and Mark ride on while I, being the good ride captain that I am;-),  stop to "help."  Mainly, with this first flat, I, like my cats at home, supervise from a distance. They are unable to find what caused the flat and insert a tube and inflate it.  Shortly thereafter, he has another flat.  Fortunately, he is riding 28s and I have a 25 tire I carry with me that will fit.  While he is putting it on, I find a slit in his tire that has punctured through to the outside.  I suspect it was large enough that with weight, the tube was protruding outward enough to cause the flat.  Anyway, one the new tire is in place, there are no more flats for this back group the rest of the day.  Bob Evancho has ridden on with our urging as he has afternoon plans with his wife and will never make it if he delays any longer. I remain unsure if he made it, and I worry about it on and off throughout the day.  Bob Grable, Harley, and I spend the rest of the day riding together never seeing another rider other than fading taillights on our way to stop at the gas station. 

 

We decide not to eat at Little Twirl and to eat at the gas station to save time.  Sure enough, when we  pass Little Twirl there are no bicycles.  I later learn from Thomas Nance that the group did stop there.  It was slow and crowded evidently which gives you an idea of the time we spent fixing the flat and our pace.  Of course, this is pretty much my normal pace anymore, but Harley and Bob could ride faster but don't.  Our service is quick at the gas station.  The sandwiches are made and just need to be dressed.  When I go to pay, however, the credit card machine rejects both of my credit cards.  Luckily I have cash but I worry about the rejection and if something is wrong as I know I am nowhere near my limit.  They later work elsewhere so I assume it was the machine.

 

After lunch we stop at the nearby restroom on the Monon Trail. I am impressed.  There is even soap and paper towels.  It will be delightful when the trail is completed and I only wish it would be all paved instead of being paved in towns but turning to crushed limestone in between towns.  I wonder if each small town will offer bathrooms like these. Everything is so green and fresh looking.  Roads are beginning to dry out and I remain hopeful that we will make it back to the start with only the few drops we had right before the first store stop.   

 

We chatter as people do on rides, sometimes all of us, sometimes two of us with the other riding silently and listening or not listening as the mood strikes.  Harley talks about how is going to be leaving to do the Ride Across Georgia and how this will cause him to miss the next two stages.  They both talk about wanting to go to France to ride.  I silently think of what trip I will do next.  This has not been a good year for me to plan trips, but perhaps something will work out in the fall.  

 

We pass Old Babe Road and shortly thereafter begin the long climb up toward the third store stop. I am surprised the sign is still there.  It normally disappears shortly after replacement.  The sound of water rushing down the hill is the background music and there is no talking, merely the sound of people trying to breathe and the occasional drip of leftover rain onto the ground.  It is lush and green and the wooded areas along the road look lovely. I try to keep my mind on the sounds and sights as my legs complain and curse me telling me I am too old for such nonsense. 

 

 It is a long hill and while it is not ridiculously steep, it is challenging.  Harley reaches the top first, then Bob, then me.  We go briefly off course when they both say their GPS says they are off course.  I then realize I mistakenly loaded the alternative course I had downloaded in case we rode on Sunday as I had to change the store stop since Amos is closed on Sunday.   Some ride captain I am, adding a mile or so to their journey.  I later learn from Jon Wineland that a delivery driver pulled into Amos's store while he was there and the driver was apologizing for being late because he got behind a group of cyclists slowly climbing that long hill.  For some reason, it struck me as funny despite the fact it must have been annoying for the driver who is working while the rest of us are out here playing.  But really, how long could they have held him up?  I understand because patience does not come easily to me, but still.  

 

I can see the dent in drinks from Thursday when I open the refrigerator.  I grab my usual third store stop Gatorade and a Snickers bar and sit outside looking forward to the last twenty five miles.  I really like Delaney Park Road and there is a delicious downhill to look forward to.  I think it is much more fun going down rather than up it as I did on Thursday.  I later learn from Thomas that he clocked over 49 mph on the descent.  Sadly, Glenn, who told me he was going 42, was going too fast to make the turn.  He went down and flipped all the way into the nearby creek.  There is no explaining why he was not more seriously injured, but he was able to ride the rest of the ride and, when I checked on him the next day, said he was surprised but he felt a little better than he did the previous day.  His angels deserve overtime pay.  

 

It is at this point that I will put on my old woman, motherly hat to pontificate a bit.  While most of the roads were dry by afternoon, there were still wet patches.  And most of you did not know the hills on the ride, whether they had switch backs, how steep the descent.  Always, always use caution on descents that you are not familiar with, and even more caution if there is a possibility of gravel and debris on the road (think recent hard rains) and wet patches.  It is much better to go slower and reach the bottom intact. Also, remember if you are riding with others down a major descent and one of you is no longer with you, to check on them.  Fortunately Thomas was behind Glenn and stopped.  And I am not saying I have not been guilty of these very things.  Yes, my S...t stinks at times too.  But I am sharing things I have learned.  And they apply to any ride, not just my own.  I remember hearing once that even pros say they slow down on descents unless they are racing. 

 

After Delaney, there are a few short, steep hills that my legs find offensive before the final, four mile rather flat finish.  When we pull in the parking lot, all the others have come and gone.  Bob finishes the course out as it is a bit shy of 100.  It was not the century that I first intended to put, but life requires that we adapt because she sure doesn't adapt to us.  Changes were necessary.  We are living.  And what better way to live than on the back of a bicycle exploring new roads?  

 

 

Finishing Groups were as follows: (because I know some of you like to see this  page)  

 

John Wineland        Group of 1         4:13

Bob Evancho    Group of 2                4:41

Jeremiah Westndorf    Group of 2        4:41

 Larry Preble            Group of 6        4:56

Zach Coleman        Group of 6        4:56

 Thomas Nance        Group of 6        4:56

 Glenn Smith        Group of 6        4:56

Mike Kamenish        Group of 6        4:56

David King            Group of 6            4:56

Steve Rice        Group of 2        5:03         

Mark Rougeux       Group of 2        5:03

 Harley Wise        Group of 3        5:40

Bob Grable        Group of 3        5:40

Melissa Hall        Group of 3        5:40   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solo Hardinsburg: Spring 2026

 It is so small a thing

to have enjoyed the sun, to

have lived light in the spring, 

to have loved, to have thought,  

to have done."
Matthew Arnold 

 

It is  going to be a spectacular day, one of those special days that seems to be a gift from above:  little wind and wall to wall sunshine.  A cool morning will gently release  her grip to a warmer day, so I carry my Texas Hell Week cycling backpack from years ago.  A smile crosses my face at the first pedal stroke and stays there most of the day.

 

I am riding my Hardinsburg Century.  I don't know where it falls in the list of centuries I designed, but I do know it was before I had much in the way of maps and before GPS.  My original intent was to eat in Hardinsburg, a town I had never visited before, but upon arriving for the first time, I found the only place open to eat at was an ancient Dairy Barn that looked as if nobody had done any cleaning in the past one hundred years.  Filth covered the outside walls and the building looked as if it were falling apart.  I rode on finally finding Little Twirl in Lavonia, a much more acceptable option.   Since then, Hardinsburg has gotten a gas station and a few other places.  The Dairy Barn is gone, merely a memory.  

 

Regardless, it is one of my favorite rides of my own design.  I have found century routes that one designs oneself to be like friends:  you love or like them all but sometimes for different reasons.  Hardinsburg is just challenging enough that you know you  will be tired at the end.  There are more rollers than significant climbs, but there are a few significant climbs.  Wahoo numbers them at 23.  It is a nice mix of farm land and of forest roads where the trees overhang the road leaving dappling shadows dancing upon it.  Today, in the forested areas, there seem to be suicidal squirrels, and I barely miss several that dart back and forth in front of my wheel. 

 

As often happens on rides, I come across something new.  Someone has started a trend of hanging old caps on top of fence posts in a field.  There are Santa hats and elf hats and ball caps.   It reminds me of the Shoe  Tree Century that I rode years and years ago that featured a tree numerous people had adorned with old worn out shoes thrown across its branches.  Who thinks of these things?  

 

When I arrive, Little Twirl is closed, but I expect this and intend to lunch in Campbellsburg at the gas station.  The hamburger there, while pre-cooked and wrapped in foil, is surprising good once they dress it for me and I sit by myself in the sun enjoying myself. Food always tastes better when I am truly hungry.  I smile thinking of all the new century riders that seem to have trouble with understanding the need to eat on a long ride.  I ask if there is a restroom and there is none, but the worker directs me to one that is on the Monon trail. I find it easily.   I cross the trail twice today and think how nice it will be once it is completed.  

 

While I ride,  memory after memory from this ride, both when alone and in company arise, and I think of how that is one thing I don't like about Zwift.  Yes, you can train well on Zwift.  You can ride at times when it would be challenging or impossible even to ride outside.  But you lose something.  While I have never been an avid Zwifter, I have used it.  And I can't think of one single memory I have from a Zwift ride other than when I rode a century on it and was worried the electric was going to go off as I neared the end.  I treasure the memories of rides with those who no longer ride or who now ride in a different group than me or who I still ride with or who mainly ride on Zwift.  I am glad it is their thing.   I don't think it will ever really be mine though I probably will sign up again some future winter that is stuffed with cold and wind and snow.  

 

As I zoom down Cox Ferry Road hill, a long, steep descent that ends opening into a large meadow lined with trees on one side, there are two large planes flying remarkable low.  They are not small Cessna like planes though not huge and they do not have the markings of Delta or Southwest or a major airline.  They are green and have a strip on the back that is white and black lines as best I can determine.  Puzzled, I head onward.  The first plane was so close to the tree line.  The second not so much. A truck passes me and the driver, an old man, waves.  I wave back but my thoughts are consumed by the long climb to get to the third store stop:  Red Barn Bait Shop.  Each year on familiar but tough climbs I wonder if this will be the year my legs fail me.  But not this year.

 

 

The climb does not seem brutal today, perhaps because I just climb at my own pace and am not worried about holding others up.  Or perhaps it is the weight program I have adopted.  Then I reach the store and say hello to Amos and his dog before heading for home one one of my favorite roads.  As I near the finish I wonder why I ended it with the roads I did for they are far more challenging than the alternate route.  But I suck it up and ride them, sorry to end this beautiful day, remembering what it was like to have legs that could go hundreds of miles without much rest or sleep.  This ride might have been a small thing, but it is my thing.  I am grateful that I can still do this and I am grateful for a spring day such as this.  I am blessed. 

Unplanned Roads

"It's better to burn out

than it is to rust."

Neil Young

 

Today is supposed to be one of those rare cycling days with moderate temperatures and light wind, so I decide to try to preride my upcoming club century to check for any route issues.  I worry about flooding from all the rain and quickly find out that I am correct.  700 is underwater.  But I will not let it ruin the day, and head toward Medora (which I also expect to find flooded) by a different road.  I am hoping I can see if there is road construction near the bridge as while the flooding might recede by then, construction would mean the century is a no-go and I will need a substitution. 

 

As I ride, I wonder if I will remember the old way there: but it is a non-issue.  The road unfolds in front of me as if I just traversed these roads last week instead of a few years ago.  The flatness of the route appeals to me today.  Normally I head toward the hills knowing that riding only flats saps leg strength quite quickly. 

 

 The sun has not yet come all the way out and it is quite strange to find that on my left there is sunshine and some blue sky while to my right there are just gray clouds, thick and puffy and cluttering the sky.  They actually look threatening, but I know it is not supposed to rain.  As an experienced rider, however, I have learned that supposed to doesn't always count.  I briefly think of the Medora Century two years ago where we left the parking lot in sunshine and then the rain started and stayed leaving us cold, wet, and weakened. The memory of how the towns people plied us with coffee and warmth brings a smile to my face.  They mothered us, and tomorrow is Mother's Day.  

 

 As I ride I think of how I miss my mother, more now perhaps than I did at first, or perhaps differently.  I just know that lately she has haunted my mind with memories and a longing to hear her voice and see her again.  I read an article recently whose theme was that when our mother passes, it is not just that she died that haunts us, but that she died without becoming the perfect mother and her death brings the realization that those needs we have that she did not or could not fulfill will now never be fulfilled.  I don't know if I believe this to be true, but it is a different way of looking at the passing of anyone really, not just our mother.  

 

 I arrive at Medora and find it is flooded and the flooding is too far out from the bridge to really know about any construction.  I decide to go try to find an old, closed bridge I found once a number of years ago.  It was not only closed, but had a huge blockade, but some lady came out of her home and handed me my bike, crossed the bridge with me, and handed me my bike on the other side as the barrier was too high for me to lift it over and set it down.  Again, kindness in the world.  

 

 I never find the bridge, maybe because many of the roads are blocked by flooding.  I suddenly realize I really have no idea where I am.  Wahoo sucks for this type of riding since it does not identify road names or have an option to route to a store or town, but I don't have a Garmin anymore.  I know I am on Wheeler's Holler Road and that I eventually reach Lick Skillet (where did that name come from).  I smile thinking of how I used to tell Grasshopper that if you rode long enough, you would come out somewhere, and I head onward.  I miss seeing Grasshopper and the fun rides we used to have.  I think of riding with him to Medora one winter.  While we were eating our lunches, the snow started, huge flakes the size of a fist.  But we made it back to the start despite my misgivings. 

 

Eventually I give in and pull out my phone.  Just prior to this, my right shifter begins giving me problems and I decide I had better just turn around and go back the way I came. No century for this girl today.  I also eat my home made oatmeal blueberry bar and think how I will be a hungry girl with about 70 miles under my belt on one small bar and water. Still, I have ridden farther on less. If I remember correctly, the first PBP we went eighty miles before stopping. But perhaps my memory betrays me as it does more and more these days.  The hard drive is way past full and I am working on disc space I fear. If I think of it, I will have to ask Steve or Dave.

 

I do notice that corn has sprouted in the fields.  I don't see any soybeans and wonder if it is due to disrupted market chains or if it is too early.  I can't recall if it comes up the same time as corn or not.  The Catalpa trees, a favorite of mine,  are blooming as well, and occasionally their blossoms decorate the road as if the road were a bridal passage.    I notice how green and verdant everything is and that the daisies have started blooming.  I smile thinking of how,  when first married, I would pick them and bring them in to brighten our home.  I smile thinking of the wonderful Mother's Day bouquet I received from my son yesterday, so different with its roses and expensive flowers, but that I have to keep locked away in the bathroom or closet due to Murphy, jerk that he is, who knocks vases over. So many of the people I knew then gone:  my husband, my siblings, my parents, Dave, Henry, Mark....  But I push that thought aside making myself think if waters will go down in two weeks time and what century I will substitute for the club if they do not.  

 

I think about whether I want to try to do another overnight this year even though it will not be part of the TMD and will likely only draw a rider or two if that.  Or I could plan on riding it alone as I have done a few times. Still, I know my days of doing those are numbered.  I make a concerted effort to stay strong, but life will have her way.  We all have an expiration date.  But as Neil Young points out, "It's better to burn out than it is to rust."   I would like to go to Montgomery again, but it takes planning.  I thought I would have more time when I retire, and I suppose I do, but I waste much of it.  Some is a good waste of time.   I read more.  Some is not. I sit more.  But perhaps I will get it planned.  Time will tell. 

 

I am able to shift in the front to the small and middle chain ring, but not to the large chain ring.  In the rear I am limited to a gear.  Flats are slow and hills are hard but luckily there are no long and/or steep climbs on today's ride.  I am still on the back roads when a Jeep passes me with a man hanging out the window yelling that there are a hundred more behind him.  I lost count but I think he was being truthful.  I felt very vulnerable on the narrow, windy country roads with so many speeding past, not wanting to be left behind by their comrades,  and am glad it is not a large group ride as I think an altercation between rider and car would have been the inevitable result.  I breath a sigh of relief when I see the last of them and wonder about them.  I guess they must get the same enjoyment riding around in their cars as a group as we do on our bicycles, but I don't really understand how.  Then I think of my Uncle Victor and how he would take us for ice cream and "Spooky Rides" where he would turn the car lights off for a few seconds and tell scary stories.  So maybe it is not so strange. 

 

 I arrive home with 71 miles glad I didn't have to call Better World Club and find out how good or bad their bicycle service is.  I left AAA and joined Better World because you can buy a bicycle supplement to transport you 30 miles if you have a mechanical.    I will have to check my route another day.  I have no regrets other than my bike needing attention.  I remind myself of how blessed I am to have my health and a day meant for riding and how much I enjoyed being on roads and not being exactly sure of where I was.  I don't do that very often anymore.  Sometimes those unexpected things that happen on a ride are the best things, things we could not have planned better if we tried.  Gosh I love bicycles.  

Five Bridges Century on a Pleasant Spring Day

"Just living is not enough.  One must

have sunshine, freedom, and a little 

flower."

Hans Christian Anderson

 

Deep within me, despite my age, I still have the desire to ride my bicycle and to explore despite the fact it is harder physically than it once was.  I am fortunate in this, in having this desire, because ironically I also have the desire to sit and rest.  Sloth and the need for activity war within me at times, particularly when a ride or activity will be physically demanding and possibly painful at times.  I know, however,  which brings the most satisfaction. Not always, but often I make the right decision, assuming either one truly is "right."  And perhaps that is because right is the wrong word:  satisfactory, desirable, rational, discerning?  Bless the English language  with all the words and their shades of meaning. 

 

Jon is putting on a century I have only done once before and have only done when the weather was decidedly unpleasant: the Five Bridges Century.  It passes by five covered bridges:  

Mile 26  Busching Covered Bridge, built in 1885 by Tom Hardman, Howe Truss, 176ft, spanning Laughrey Creek, Ripley County, IN

Mile 37.6 Otter Creek Covered Bridge, built in 1884 by Tom Hardman, Howe Truss, 112 feet, spanning...well, Otter Creek, of course! Near Holton, IN

Mile 50.3  Westport Covered Bridge, built in 1880 by Archibald McMichael Kennedy & Sons (Emmett, Charles), Burr Arch, 130 feet, spanning Sand Creek. Decatur County, IN

Mile 65.7  Scipio Covered Bridge, built in 1886 by Smithe Bridge Company, Howe Truss, 146ft, spanning Sand Creek, Jennings County, IN

Mile 87.2  James Covered Bridge, built in 1887 by Daniel Baron, Howe Truss, 124ft, spanning Graham Creek, Jennings County, IN  (Names and information on bridges copies from Jon Wineland post). 

 

Today there is to be at least some sun and warmth, though the prediction, which never comes to pass, is for increasing cloudiness.  The wind prediction does give me pause, but this is apparently going to be one of those  years where you ride in wind or you don't ride.  It will be a head wind most of the return, but I have already told Jon I don't intend to ride fast and he says he is okay with that. I often have a hard time accepting someone's word when they say this, but on this occasion I will since he knows me well enough to know my pace and could have just not asked. I originally had suggested a shorter ride, but then he tempted me with this century and I acquiesced shoving any doubts firmly down.    

 

My right knee has been bothering me.  It is not painful, but it makes me know it is there and whispers to me that if I abuse it, it will become painful.   But while there is lots of climbing on this route, there are no exceptionally long or steep climbs and I am taking my new bike which has easier gearing than the Lynskey.  

 

We meet at the hospital unsure if any other riders will join us.  They don't.  We are fine with that knowing that while we would have enjoyed the company of others, our friendship will be enough to see us through the day.  And we have not spent much time together recently so we do have things to catch up on.  What books are we reading?  What travel plans are in our future? And so on and so on. 

 

Sadly, the redbuds are gone, but there are still dogwoods at places along the route.  We see wild blue phlox, grape hyacinth, and other flowers that are lovely but which I can't identify dancing alongside the road.  In places the fields that farmers have not sprayed or plowed are thick with butter-weed, their yellow so beautiful and cheerful as if they are applauding the sun.  It is hell on allergies, but oh so very lovely.  The purple Dead-nettle and Henbit are mostly gone. Occasionally we see iris beginning to bloom.  Some fields are browned from being sprayed, and while we will pass some fields where farmers are working, we somehow elude being nearby while they are spraying, something we are both grateful for.  At one point we pull off to allow a tractor to pass.  We are playing.  He is working.  

 

As we climb a hill, we both view what we at first think is a wild turkey, but it turns out to be a stump and we both laugh at how our eyes can trick us.  We later do startle a turkey who takes off, awkward in his flight due to the size of his body but sufficiently upset at our passage to actually fly.  Jon tells me an interesting fact about Pterodactyls and how they would not be able to fly today as the air is different than it was then.  Sometime during the morning, as we descend a hill, a car is stopped in the wrong lane.  As I approach, the car door opens and a young lady goes running down the hill.  There is something lying in the road she is obviously going after and I wonder if a child threw out a toy.  I then see it is a box turtle.  She parked in the lane so nobody would run over it and gently moves it to the side of the road.  It is a good way to start the day, watching this act of kindness in a world which seems to be constantly reminding us is not kind.  

 

As we near the first store stop, we decide to skip the first bridge as we both have seen it many times both during rides and when we hike.  It also will avoid one of the steeper, longer climbs and cut about a mile off the 107 mile course.  We stop at a coffee shop before heading onward.  At the first bridge we stop at, I find a large hunting knife as we walk up to the bridge.  It is too large to fit in my front bag.  Jon helps secure it in my rear bag though it sticks out a few inches.  He later finds a cord along the road and we tie the zippers together so that they won't loosen and I will not lose anything.  Jon finds a nickle at the same bridge and chuckles saying how it pays to ride.  I tell him I think it would be interesting to keep track of everything that we have found and taken home on rides.  Earlier this week I found garden clippers on a ride. He agrees that it would be. 

 

While I don't photograph them all, we stop at each covered bridge and even at a bridge that is not covered but is old reading graffiti.  One still has Christmas lights hanging and I think how beautiful it must be at night during December.  Jon reminds me it would require riding at night to witness it.  And of course, I used to ride at night a lot but haven't since I quit working and quit doing brevets.  A part of me misses it as it is so different from daytime riding, but it is unlikely that I will ride very often at night anymore.  Not impossible, just unlikely. 

 

At lunch we sit outside on a bench and enjoy our sandwiches.  At the third store stop, the manager of the store comes out and tells us we are crazy when he hears how far we are riding and then asks if there aren't normally more of us.  Jon reminds me that the last time we did this ride, we heard the same words, just from a different person and reminds me that she rolled down the window as she left the store cautioning us to be careful. And perhaps they are right:  maybe those of us who ride distance aren't quite right, but we are pretty harmless in our addiction. The stop is welcome as the wind is wearying, but we move on and finish it out.  Near the end Jon runs into a friend from the Madison Bicycle Club whose wife is trying a borrowed ebike.  She quits at their home but he rides with us to the hospital where we end but he continues.  I tease Jon telling Doug that I have had to put up with him all day and it is now his turn to do so. 

 

  

 It has been an altogether pleasant if long day saturated with sunshine and friendship and flowers and a little freedom.  By the time we end, my feet and hands and body are ready for it to end even if my mind is not.  I remain thankful for bicycles, sunshine, flowers, the health to ride, and friendship.  I am blessed.  

 

 

 

TMD 2026: Tour de Hanover

"Each mistake teaches you

something new about yourself. 

There is no failure, remember, 

except in no longer trying.  It is 

the courage to continue that counts."

Chris Bradford   

 

Whether or not to ride this century, for me the first century of the year, was a challenging decision, and one I may have made differently if the weather had been worse.  I can't remember ever being less prepared to ride a century.  Yes, I have stayed active through the winter.  I eschewed Zwift but did do some spin classes.  I hiked and I walked and I swam and I lifted weights.  But I have not ridden outside much at all:  my longest ride was only 38 miles and that was two weeks ago.  I missed the two good days for riding last week visiting my son and his family.   To ride could definitely turn out to be a mistake, and a painful one at that.  (at least if any choice to ride could be considered a mistake)  If asked, I would advise others to wait until they had completed a least a 60 mile ride before attempting the century distance.  But there is no fool like an old fool I suppose. Experience should teach us to know better, but some of us never learn. 

 

Before committing, I do email Thomas to see if he minds if I leave a bit early so as not to hold him up.  It won't be much of a head start because the ride is the first day of day lights savings and the start time is sun up.  But it will be a bit of a start.  Thomas replies that he is just glad I am riding and I hope that he is being truthful.  And so, with the temperature prediction of forties to sixties with wind less that  10 miles per hour, I commit knowing that I can always turn around at the first store stop if I find I have bitten off more than I can chew.  Yes, it could be a mistake, but it certainly would not be the first one I have made in my lifetime. 

 

The day before I ready my bike, checking the bike bag for spares and tools and adding a gel or two, something I rarely use but carry in case of a bonk.  It is not that gels don't help, but I normally struggle to sleep the night after a century and adding caffeine from a gel does not help with the sleeping though it does with the riding.   Before I leave to the start, I throw in a warmer jersey just in case.  I will  later be so glad that I did for the ride start is colder than I expect. I have found that with season changes, with both hiking and biking, I have to re-learn how to dress. Normally I tend to go too warm, but that will not be the case today. 

 

After signing in, Bob Grable, Steve Rice, and I head out about fifteen minutes before the official start time and I thoroughly expect all the riders to catch us by the first store stop.  As mentioned, I added an extra layer for it is still quite chilly and the sun is not supposed to pop out until mid-afternoon.  But it is so nice to be on the bike again, at least for now.  

 

My mind has yearned for the bike and the open roads and what awaits there.  I have missed the conversation and fellowship and just the quiet calm of riding side by side with a friend who will share what happens and who may dream the same dreams tonight.  A friend who understands how tired a ride can make a person and how challenging even short climbs can be if they have a bit of depth to them, particularly this early in the season.  Cobb Hill comes up in the conversation, a hill I have only mastered one side of and have miserably failed at climbing on the other.  Steve Rice says he has never mastered the other side either and I laugh bringing up the memory of Chris Quirey telling me how the hill was so steep that when he was forced to dismount, he began sliding down the hill on his cleats.  Steve Rice talks of the first time he encountered the hill and had a similar experience while sporting Look cleats.  He ended up taking off his shoes so he could walk up the hill and someone drove by, rolled down the car window, said not a word, but shook his head at him.  His story reminds me of how much I miss stories from others during the solitary winter months.  It brings back other memories, for that brevet was the one where the driver stopped and pulled a gun on Steve.  So long ago.  

 

I don't remember how Cobb Hill came up because I know this is not an extremely hilly course, still I am surprised when my Wahoo tells me there are only seven climbs for the day. I blithely and naively believe it.  Later, near the first store stop, it will tell me I have finished riding.  I have to re-load the course to find there are 19 climbs for the day.   The new Wahoo occasionally does this and it is quite annoying.  It  has been over a year ago they said they were working on a fix for the issue.  Obviously, they have not been successful.  But I will continue to use the Wahoo until it gives out I suppose.  I do love its simplicity even while missing Garmin's map which gives street names. 

 

I also made the switch to a Fit Bit Versa 4 over the winter from an old fashioned Timex Ironman watch.  But I have found that it is virtually useless on hikes and bike rides.  On hikes it is wildly inaccurate and on bike rides it switches off if you happen to pause at a stop sign, etc. Like anything new, I am sure there are things I don't know about it, but I can't say that I am yet sure it was worth forsaking my old Ironman watch for.   

 

We spend the first of the ride in conversation, something that will become more rare as the hours and miles pass.  When it is full light, I begin to notice the first of the daffodils in places.  How welcome they are dressed in their bright shades of yellow which only emphasizes the green of their leaves.  My eyes have been winter starved for color.  Fields remain brown and barren and dull showing no promise of future fruitfulness, trees remain naked and stark, but daffodils promise that this will change.   I am always so thankful when God decides to grant me another spring and the strength to watch it from the seat of a bicycle.  I send up a silent prayer of thankfulness. 

 

The worms, however, are something I am never grateful for while riding and bring back memories of brevets. The wet weather has drawn them out onto the road and there is no way to avoid them.  They splatter my bike and my clothing and my wheels and even my water bottles.  It makes me wonder how many earth worms I have unwittingly eaten during rides where they splatter everywhere including my water bottles.  On walks,  I often pick them up as the day warms and place them back where they can go to ground rather than die on the pavement, but on a bike I just become a worm murderess, however unwittingly.  

 

We are not too far down the road when an individual rider passes us as if we were standing still.  I don't recognize him as I don't recognize many of the riders here today.  I know better than to follow my instinct to give chase:  if I am to finish I must ride conservatively.  About ten to fifteen minutes after, another group passes.  Jon says hello as they pass.   We will not see them again until the first store stop in New Washington.  

 

We reach the store stop and  I grab a quick drink to have with my homemade oatmeal bar.  It tastes unusually good today.  But we only pause and are ready to pull out when Thomas Nance and the group he is with arrive.  Needless to say, fool that I am I decide to head on rather than to turn around and make it a 60 miler instead of 101.  Steve and Bob begin to pick up the pace.  I stay with them for a bit, but then decide it is too swift for me.  I have not shed the expected layer at the stop, and I am glad I have not. Jon stays with me and we don't see them again until lunch.  I am grateful for his company and he teases me when I worry about finishing telling me I will be singing before we are through.  And indeed, I do sing a bit later, when the sun pops out, and he teases me about that as well.   I try to remember to drink.  

 

At my age I am already at risk of stroke, and dehydration ups that risk for anyone.   After Lloyd's stroke and seeing that of others, particularly my aunt who lay for a year or longer unable to talk or move,  I am fearful of being left so helpless whereas I was not when I was younger.  Perhaps, as is often said, ignorance is bliss, at least in some areas.  Or is it youth thinking that things could never happen to them, only to others. Maybe even getting old is that way.  We think it will not happen to us.  Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and wonder how I ever got this old.  And why.  Why me and not somebody else?  I remember my mother, who outlasted all her siblings and many of her friends by a number of years, telling me that it is not always a gift to be the last one left.  But then, who really wants to die unless they are in pain or the throes of depression?

 

Jon and I eat at McDonalds.  As always, I remain amazed at how popular it is because the food just is not very good and it is not cheap.  The woman taking my order looks years older than me, weary and beaten down by life.  I think how fortunate I am that I was able to retire and not have to continue going to work when age had gripped me tightly.  Bob comes in asking if we are about ready to leave.  We are and head out together though I have told him to go on.  He needs to get back and I have, as Jon often says, all day.  There is a comfort in knowing that if I do fall back, Thomas and the rest of the group are still back there and will sweep me up.  But my fear of being the chubby anchor never materializes. The four of us will finish the ride together.   The sun begins to come out and while I initially wondered if taking off a layer at lunch was wise, in only a few miles I am glad for disrobing. A few minutes of misery in exchange for future comfort.  A lesson cycling teaches us if we ride for long. 

 

The third store stop is absolutely disgusting outside with bird droppings on the chairs and tables and scraps of food (at least I hope that is what they were) just set outside.  The sad part is it could be a lovely stop with the outside area and the tables.  But it would take soap, water, and elbow grease.  We don't linger overly long before striking back out.   

 

When we cross 62, my legs and I are ready to be done, particularly when there is anything that even remotely resembles a hill.  They are not failing me yet, but they are consistently grumbling about the demands I am placing on them.  I think  briefly of how one day, if I continue to challenge myself, or even if I don't,  they will sputter and give out and fail to respond when I ask them to;  will I consider that a mistake in judgement or will I be glad that I still made the attempt?  Was Dylan Thomas right, should we "not go gentle into that good night?"  I suppose I will not know the answer to that question  until it  happens.  I just  hope that I have the strength of mind to continue to challenge myself, to have the courage to plunge onward without letting fear of failure hold me captive.  I have failed at so many things, I should be a pro.  But I also have had my share of successes.  One builds on the other perhaps. .   I think when it happens I will just feel truly old and sad.   I hope I also feel that it was not a mistake to continue for as long as this body I was blessed with allows me to. 

 

I know from doing this course  previously,  this stretch after crossing 62  always seems as long as the entire century:  the car seems an eternity away.   But eventually we arrive.  I sign in and go home.  We are about an hour behind the first rider and about a half hour behind the second group and there is still a group out.  Somehow, I survived and never had to call my daughter to rescue me.  So I smile as I get in my car and head home to rest and prepare for the coming riding season, mentally and physically.  It is good to be back in the saddle, but I am ready to put the bike away until tomorrow.  

A Riding Week in February

"I used to try to decide which was the 

worst month of the year. In the winter

I would choose February. I had it figured

out that the reason God made February short

a few days was because he knew that by 

the time people came to the end of it they

would die if they had to stand one more

blasted day."  

Katherine Paterson

 

Our unusual cold, snowy spell has been followed by an unusual warm spell.  It has not quite dispelled the snow that still daintily laces the shady places, defiantly white,  where the sun cannot reach.  It is definitely ebbing, clenched fists slowly and reluctantly relinquishing dull brown ground.  There is a bareness there that will be unrecognizable once spring weaves her magic.   I wish I knew for sure that winter was done for this year, but I have heard predictions that winter will defiantly reclaim the land toward the end of the month.  I hope they are wrong but it would be quite off for winter to let us off so easily in early February.  I have had quite enough of the snow shovel this year and have vowed that by next winter, I will have a snow blower.  The weather has always swung wildly, but more so now than ever in memory.  Then I grin to myself thinking that in a few months I will be cursing the heat.  Dissatisfaction, part of the human condition.  

 

 

 I feel fortunate that I have been able to get out on the bike during the past week for a few rides, including today.  But today is dreary and it is still cold with the sun shielding his warmth from not just my body, but my soul.  I mind the cold more than I used to, and I mind the wind even more.  Age, it seems, has weakened not only my determination, but my tolerance for those things that increase the difficulty of a ride though I still do not mind hills even while I curse them.  There is something about the use of my legs and my breath that reminds me I am alive and still strong, relatively speaking.  It is not the strength of younger years, but it is still strength, and I rejoice in it. 

 

  I used to enjoy the challenge of wind and extreme cold, but not so much any more. Perhaps it is because my winter rides have become almost exclusively exercises in solitude.   Those that used to face these roads with me throughout the depths of winter no longer do.  Some have quit riding and some have yielded to Zwift.  And those that do ride are so much younger and stronger that I would be a burden.  Or perhaps it is just because of the passage of time......when there is no longer change, when we no longer change, we are dead.  February has been hard regardless since Lloyd passed as it held both Valentine's Day and our anniversary.  

 

But I can say I have enjoyed the short rides this week, most of them in the twenty mile range or a bit more.   Despite the cold, the wind has not been too demanding, and it just feels good to be outside and for the road to be passing underneath my wheels.  As I climbed Leota Hill earlier this week, I swore to myself that it has gotten slightly steeper and longer over the winter.  My breath was ragged and gasping, my speed a mere crawl, but still I ascended.  When asked, my legs did not fail me.  I worried about cinders causing my tire to flat or to spin out, but thus far it has not happened.  I truly detest changing a tire when my fingers are freezing cold.  I briefly wondered how the finger I have to manually straighten in the mornings anymore would react to the demand and I am glad I don't find out. 

 

On Saylor, I stopped briefly when I saw ice blocks. I have seen ice fishing before in this area, but never the blocks.  They gleamed in the sunshine of the day.   They were in front of an Amish house so, while my first thought was an igloo, I realized it is probably for their ice house since the Amish do not use electricity and thus do not have refrigerators.  It made me think of my mother and how she told me the children would run behind the ice truck in the summer hoping that the ice man would be kind enough to chip a free piece of ice for them to stick in their cotton dry summer mouths.  How spoiled we have become.  All my childhood we had a refrigerator, and all my childhood my mother continued to call it the icebox.  Sometimes I wonder if the progress has actually made us less satisfied with our lives, perhaps because it yields us time we would not otherwise have.   I miss my mother:  the sound of her voice, the sound of her laughter, the way she would call my name,  the gentleness of her touch, the very smell of her.   These, I thought, are the important things in life, but too often we do not cherish them  enough only realizing their importance and their rareness when they are gone. 

 

 

I wish I had been a better daughter, closer to what she wanted me to be.  Did she ever understand my love of the bicycle?  How I cried when we left our home to live in England for year and they sold my sister's bike, the bike I had inherited and learned to ride on. I know she later came to hate my cycling, but time has made me realize how interlaced that hatred was with fear for my safety.  And how could she have understood, she who was raised in poverty and never owned a bicycle.  Our personalities and likes so different, and yet I swear we were cut from the same cloth.  Sometimes I see her in myself.   At one time it would have made me turn away, but now I embrace it.  Yes, I miss my mother and the others I have loved that have died.  

 

My thoughts were interrupted by two deer that stand, uncertain, timidly gazing at me from the middle of the road.  They decided there is safety in flight, and they gracefully bound and melt into the forest, survivors of another hunting season.  I noticed squirrels scampering and one that did not scamper quickly from an automobile demanding passage thus paying the ultimate price.  I assume they are hungrier than normal because of the snow making dinner harder to come by.  But I do not know.  I hate thinking that I will die with so much left that I do not know or understand or have never seen.  

 

All these are thoughts I have as I wind my way down roads that are so familiar I could almost ride them blindfolded.   Each day I head a different direction, sometimes still finding my way impeded by ice patches where the trees have shielded the snow from the sun. Nowadays, I change course.  It is just good to be outside, on a bicycle, and to know that it looks as if God will probably grant me another spring, another chance to watch the earth give birth and paint the roadsides with color and new life.  Would I chose February as the worst month?  I don't know.  In February Christmas with its sparkle has passed and the winter seems to drag on as if it will never end.  And we no longer go to Hell Week so there is not that to look forward to.  Would we, I wonder, appreciate spring as much if there were no February?