I reached my goal of completing a century by my 50th birthday. I have been riding regularly again since I received a road bike for my anniversary last October.

Time has been very tight this spring and early summer with rowing, forensics, Mt. Mitchell for hubby, VBS, camp and college orientation, etc...I was afraid we wouldn't be able to fit in a century for me.

But the waters parted and I did another search and found a big ride in Georgia that wasn't on the GA Ride website. The Cartersville Century.

We had been to Cartersville several times for gymnastics meets with our youngest son. It is a beautiful town. This century is billed as the 2nd largest GA ride. I did my first metric this spring at the Best Dam Ride which is billed as the 3rd largest ride. I am still not sure what bills itself as the 1st ride.

I had a pre-ride nutrition and hydration discussion at my LBS so I was prepared with electrolite tablets, HEED and an energy bar if needed. I have never had a problem with cramping like so many people describe, not just cyclists, but I wanted to be prepared just in case. My husband like Sustained Energy but it makes me gag so I was a bit worried about the HEED. My first bottle was citrus which was OK and very drinkable. My second was lemon-lime which was very acceptable. I feel comfortable making it my flavor of choice from now on.

I am prone to exercise headaches and did not want to ruin my weekend with one so I was mindful of my hydration and calories. I also used my Kafka neck cooler. It got too heavy for the longer ride so it came off and on. I think I am going to remove half of the beads, make a second scarf and partition the beads in 5 or 6 compartments to keep them distributed around my neck. I love the scarf, I have never gotten a headache when I have used it but it was just too heavy for more than 40 miles.

Dave took off with the lead group and I was somewhere in the middle. The lead pack stopped at the second rest stop and he wasn't ready so he did the double back and was the lead guy until he missed the next right turn. When I was at rest stop #2 a support worker was in a panic because it had been reported that the marker had been painted over and people were getting off course. I hoped Dave wasn't one of them but he was the first one. He ended up following the markings for a BCC ride and realized he was off course when he ended up back at the first rest stop. He asked directions from a local and they put him on a direct route to rest stop #3. His detour added about 5 miles to his ride. His big disappointment was that he lost the front pack. He had been expecting them to overtake him after their stop so that he could jump in with them again.

After rest stop #2 I was committed to the 100 mile ride. This put me near the back of the pack and people kept passing me. At rest stop #3 I wasn't sure if I was last, but I knew I was close. People were dropping like flies around me but I was rolling on slow but just fine. Through the remainder of my ride I would have clean-up wagons stop to check on me if they passed while I was pausing to drink, eat or text my Dave. They always had jersey clad guys in the back seats and bikes in the rear. I would assure them I was fine but slow.

I didn't get a chance to draft once on this ride. It was all me. Riders of my speed tend not to ride in a pace line when they get in groups. Instead they spread themselves across the road, bob, weave and make passing difficult. It is very frustrating for me since I have a lot of experience drafting with my husband and now my son. Some rides I get the chance to catch the occasional pace line and it is a blast while I can keep up. I guess I need to get faster.

I had my first clipless fall. I think it was at rest stop #4. As I left the group of walking dead I failed to notice that this was a switch-back rest stop. As I was turning left to go down hill, I notice the marker about 15ft up the road from the driveway telling me to go right and up hill. I did a quick u-turn, ran out of road, came to a stop, unclipped on my regular side which was uphill and fell to my clipped-in downhill side. Skinned my knee and elbow a little bit. Luckily the rest stop was so far from the road that I don't think anyone saw me and if they did they were too tired to help anyway. It was a pitiful stop.

The next stop was a rogue rest stop. An adorable little country church set up a couple of tents. All they has was water and ice but it was very welcome. This was the point that I needed to mix my second bottle of HEED. I also had brought my new 24oz polar bottle for water. The morning had been milder than the weather channel had predicted but the sun was getting high and hot by this stop and it was nice to have this big insulated bottle.

This was the most convoluted and twisty-turning ride I have ever done. Dave felt the same way. The markings could get confusing as there were several other events on the road as well and they were all in the same orange paint! Sometimes our route would cross over the others and at other times it would go the same way. There were several times that you would get to an intersection and there would be a rats nest of various ride markings, all in orange and you would have a terrible time making out the CC marking. Sometimes the CC wasn't in the rats nest and you would ride for miles before you knew you were still on the right route.

In the 70's I passed one of these confusing intersections, didn't see CC so I kept going straight. Shortly after I was stopped at a light, looking at a highway overpass and on a corner with a gas station. I saw two riders coming up behind me who had kept straight as well. We all got out our near useless maps to try to figure things out. An old guy in a tattered t-shirt with an official looking sheriffs pin on it came out of the gas station and out to us. He was a crusty old guy with a terrible speech impediment but I figured he liked to be helpful because of his pin. One of the guys tried to get him to point out our location on the map but the map was so bad and he was so difficult to understand that I knew another approach was necessary. I asked him if he had seen a lot of bikes passing through the intersection and over the highway all day and he gave me an enthusiastic yes. I made the decision to keep going, the guys followed and we eventually started seeing CC markings again and came to the last rest stop where I had a special treat. Dave was there waiting for me!

I took off before my new riding partners and Dave would drive ahead and wait at intersections here and there to squirt me down with cold water. What a treat!

I made it back to the park with just under 96 miles on the computer. That would not do for me. I went back out on the road and made some loops in the parking lot until I broke 100 miles. I had to do the same thing to get my metric century in April.

Then the nice support crew served me a hamburger and Dave and I went back to our hotel to clean up and rest. We found a cute little local flavor restaurant to round out our visit to beautiful Cartersville, GA.

I really enjoyed the ride. The support was first rate with the exception of the map and markings. But that just made the ride a bit more interesting. Southern hospitality is hard to beat!

Unfortunately, the MOD POD had to miss this trip. Not to worry, we have more camping/riding trips in the planning stages. We would like to do a ride with Nick in July and 3-6 Gaps and the Savannah Century are on the calendar for fall. We can't miss the Falluminum rally either. We have to get her back on the road soon to break in her new tires!

Where did I go for so long?

Why the abrupt halt in my posting? It is a very sad story. As you know, it is hard to find zippy internet connections while one is on the road and we were several days without one.

We had a great time at the Grand Canyon. We stayed at Mather's Campground which was very pretty. Crowded and tight but laid out in a way that was surprisingly private. Due to our early troubles we had to shorten our time at the canyon so we had to cut our hiking short. We descended a short way on two trails just to get the feel. We were able to ride our bikes around the rim a bit and get some nice photos. The buses do not show any respect to bicyclists! We made it just in time on our bikes to a great sunset viewing vantage point. Had to ride home using our LED flashlights I bought for $3.99 at Office Depot. They work as well as the $20 on we bought at Lowes. We saw a moose on our ride.

Drew and Nick flipped a great intro for a video with Drew playing his guitar at the campfire. This was to be their best video effort to date. On our long drive to Las Vegas, Drew edited three videos to download that evening when we got to the campground. At a rest stop, Drew opened his truck door and his computer slipped from beneath the seat and hit the ground. It didn't seem to be damaged at the time because he used it for several hours after the fall.

Drew announced that he had just finished his last video when he let out a big "What just happened!" His computer crashed and he recognized the problem from an experience another Mac friend had had. We frantically tried all kinds of things to get it to reboot. We Googled fixes using our slow as molasses air-card. I then made an appointment at the Las Vegas Apple store while driving down the highway.

The Genius pronounced Drew's Mac dead and the three videos un-retrievable. At this point the boys lost all interest in Flipping the rest of the trip. I tried to keep it up but they were no longer willing participants. The Faminacan Vlog came to a screeching halt.

Since we had to go to the city to go to the Apple store we decided to look at the lights. Not our cup of tea.

Well, we had a great time at Yosemite. Tuolumne Meadows was a great place to stay. Our day spent in the valley was not our favorite. We decided to climb Clouds Rest instead of Half Dome. Drew took a rock climbing class. Nick has a terrible time with his asthma. There were four fires burning in the park and he had to use his inhaler so much that he emptied it. We had to get a refill at the first aid center when we were in the valley.

From there we headed to Moab, UT. We took a ride around Arches National Park. Very pretty. We took our bikes to Slick Rocks and we all did the beginner trail. Dave and Drew did it twice. Drew wants to go back some day and ride it with a properly set up bike. We had put flat pedals on all of our for sight seeing and this made climbing on the slick rock really difficult. Dave purposefully flew over his handlebars into a puddle of sand. Wish I had a video of that!

Nick had the highlight of his entire trip when we rented a Razor. He had a blast driving it in some dunes, over dirt roads and around a huge rock formation.


From there we drove home and gave the MOD POD a well deserved bath.

Our Epic Day Four (as compared to our first three days)

Another long day of driving. We made it to Las Cruces, NM. Wednesday we will be back on track when we get to Pheonix, AZ.

We stopped at the Monahans Sandhills State Park and rented a sand disc and board. The guys had a blast. We got all sandy and hot. We fired up the Honda for it's first genuine use. The A/C was nice.

Then it was back on the road. We are very happy with the "Next Exit 2009" book we purchased right before we left. It is extra helpful since we are using only truck stops to avoid a replay of our first day on the road.

Scooby took some beautiful landscape and sky photos. We saw a variety of weather conditions today. As we scanned the horizon the weather would often range from black and rainy to clear with fluffy clouds depending on where we looked. I love being out West where you can see for miles and miles. That is one thing I really miss from my childhood growing up in WA along the Columbia River. I can barely see across the street in GA!

We pulled out the dutch oven tonight and made an apple cobbler. It was very good. We are tired of eating out but we can't trust the refrigerator to stay cold. We check it at each stop and the pilot has usually blown out and the temp is rising.

Day 4!

Still Driving West

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA6LLU_Yc70

YouTube - The Epic Grad Trip - Day 3 (Second Half)

More video fun from the boys.
We made it to Dallas, TX yesterday without major TV or RV problems. The tire monitor said we had a tire w/ 0psi but it was mistaken. Our refrigerator popped open. Apples rolled around and butter melted all over the floor. Was easy to clean up but it took hours to cool down again. We thought we may have lost our refrigerator. We put a thermometer in it over night and had ice in the morning. Yay!
Our first night sleeping in the AS this trip was great. Full hook ups so we had A/C. The Dallas Metro KOA is very quiet even though it is an urban camp ground.

We made it out of Jackson!

We are passing through LA.
We were the victims of bad diesel fuel. Our fuel filter had a lot of water in it. It was replaced and they tested the remaining fuel in the tank. It came out clear so they are pretty sure we sucked all the bad stuff out Saturday. We are going to try to use truck stops from here on out.
We have spotted two Aistreams heading East. The first was Saturday just West of Tupelo, MS and we passed a Safari today shortly after we crossed into LA.