Peggy & I rode the 100K Beanstalk rando ride today. This is the same route that the LSR group opened to all riders as a "populaire" this past July. The ride starts from Princeton,onto Altoga,Valdosta,Westminster,Cannon,& Tom Bean. This is an out & back route.
 
We left the North End Grocery at 8:00am under cloudy,skies & semi-breezy,cool weather temperatures. At mile 18+(heading Northwest) the wind really picked up & about took me down as I was making a turn around a bend(Whew! "That was close",I thought to myself). Peggy in tow,we pressed on. As we arrived in Tom Bean(control),we had an 18.5 mph avg. We arrived 13 seconds after the earliest time that was allowed. We traveled the 31 miles to Tom Bean in 1hr,42min,13 secs.
 
We spent 8 minutes at the control & headed back, Ooof!!! 30mph+ headwinds. Some wind gusts were so bad that you were literally blown from one side of the road to another. Good thing the roads are relatively lightly traveled.  Forget speed,it was a matter of personal safety at this point. Hang & pedal what could. A lot of 10,12,13mph stretches.  
 
The return trip from Tom Bean to Princeton was ridden in 2hours,26mins,& 50 secs. An extra 42 minutes(as compared to the early morning route).
 
It was still a great day. In the course of riding 62.50 miles,I eclipsed the 6,000 mile mark for the year. I'm glad Peggy was along side me to celebrate the accomplishment(Nelson,EV & Bud have hit their 6,000+ mile marks earlier) ,but it was still fun to do(thinking back to all of the memorable moments & all the people that we have ridden with during the year. Thanks to all for making this happen,especially Peggy).
 
Our total ride time was 4hours 26 mins. A bike computer avg of 15.0moh(overall). I'm sure the avg. on the return trip into the wind was not much above 13-14 mph. That's "OK" . There were a few "white knuckle" moments thanks to some untimely wind gusts.  
 
Peggy was a trooper as usual. She didn't complain about the wind & rode with me the entire time.  
 
Now ,I'm 241K short of 4,000k rando miles for the year. I can't let that happen. I MUST get some more rando rides before it gets cold(can you believe I just said that...me,Mr candya@# rando rider who doesn't like the cold?!).
 
Get well Ray. We missed riding with Bud,Nelson,Greg, & Paul. If you're riding...BE CAREFUL!
 
 
 

Quote from FlyingLaZBoy on Dec 14^th, 2008, 7:06am:

 
 
Paul ,thanks. Peggy & I were hoping that all rebenters were being safe as possible yesterday. We had so much fun in the wind yesterday,we're going to pass on acting like human sails today.  
 
I was glad to hear the knee is better. Keep plugging away on the 6,000 . I still have work to do on the 4,00K rando miles.