Crap!  I was hoping with the westerly return wind you guys would be golden.  How was it?  Any info is appreciated.
 
Take Care,
Nelson.

How about some details?

Quote from Bud_Bent on Jan 19^th, 2009, 8:46am:

I gotta finish sleeping first. We got back home at 10:30 after waking up at 4  

So your riding along to your first control. Ok your looking for a country store
#1 or #2
Hmm lets take another look at that store on the right
naaah that can't be it.
 
er nope it wasn't door #1
 
Note: The #2 image looks alot clearer then it did when we rolled in  
Hm on second thought it is alot easier to figure out with those pictures  
 

The ride was really nice. Very nice roads except 1 miles of construction, light traffic, nice scenery, not many loose dogs.  
 
It was a little chilly heading into the wind for the first part of the trip. It also made the hills all that much harder as you fought up the hills to receive no reward of coasting downhill since the wind cancelled out the nicer effects of gravity.
 
You just can't coast down the nice hills.

 
The trip out wasn't so bad except for that chill especially in the beginning around the water. There are a few really tough climbs into the midpoint control though which really hurt our time.
We had some chicken strips and fries at the country store. Well we ordered chicken strips and fries but mostly just had a few fries and cool ranch doritoes. Then hit the road on the way back at 2:50 or so *coungh* 14:50 rather.
 
We were making ok time with a little tailwind. We got through the construction area without any problems just riding on through and then Union pacific was ahead of schedule again.

Passing train

I think the train might be moving

 
A recognizable building but still far from getting home.  

 
The last 20 or so were pretty long. The GPS stopped telling me how far or how much time till the next checkpoint. My wireless computer is well a wireless computer and kept dropping miles all over and neither the GPS nor my wifes computer was reset prior to the ride so we didnt' really know how much further it was at any time.
Most it was just hm.. I wonder how far it is now with alot of darkness

When we got back we loaded up the bikes and went in to cleanup and got our cards signed. I think we actually rolled in around 20:44 and since we missed the midpoint anyhow we weren't in a rush.  
Even had time for a pic or two.


 
more pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/shantar42/Perm20080119#

Quote from Bud_Bent on Jan 19^th, 2009, 12:17pm:

 
Oops CheeburgerCheeburger.
 
Oh and the most important lesson of the ride.  
 
When you are riding along with your head and rest of your body within easy chomping distance the perfect deterrent for an angry pack of dogs is nothing other then a ripped open on the go bag of

Just wait for the Animals to close and throw it at one. No dog can resist fighting over dozens of little bits of sugery goodness.
 
Animal control officer tested and approved  

The train is a little difficult to quantify since we weren't paying it much attention to it being a delay since we missed forestburg.
It was at least 5 minutes until we heard the other train whistle and decided it was safe to dig out the camera for pictures since we didn't want to be fussing with it and have the train move.
Just checked the pic images. The first one was 4:58 the latest one is 5:04 when the train just started moving. It took at least 10 minutes for it to clear the intersection.
 
 
Outbound to forestburg we beat the train by a minute or less and I believe it was early at the track crossing near 377 that happened and not the 35 one.  
 
I can't believe we were in forestburg for an hour just to get the card signed and eat some fries geash. Actually card signing seemed much more difficult of an affair then I'm used to.
 
At the start.
After waiting a bit I ended up using the atm to get a receipt with a time 7:06 at the start since there was no one visible in the shop except for one agitaded customer. Girl gets off the phone  in that little office behind the counter and comes out to customer saying he just wanted _________ and then she sells us our spree and signs our receipts 7:07 PM. Christine called her back out and she apoligized that she was having family problems and fixed our PM to AM and said she could see how that would be a problem and went back to the phone and wished us a good ride. (and perhaps cursed us when we closed the door because we didnt' even make it out of the lot without a mechanical)  
 
At forestburg it went something like this.
Park the bikes walk in the wrong building and wonder what kind of control this is? ooops wrong building
Walk out  of the feed store and into the actual store and see the one casheir waiting on someone at the second register with a line of 3 folks at the first register unattended and one of them griping about it since I believe his friends were waiting outside since they were on a motorcycle ride.
Walk in back to see if there was anyone there but there was just a little kid and about half a dozen folks dressed up yelling across the tiny room at eachother about who knows what.
Return up front and they are still doing something with that other person and finally let him go and came over to check the 3 folks in front of us out.
 
Per Verizon time it took us 7 minutes from arrival to card signing (VZ Time at checkout was 1:56). We rolled in at 1:49 VZ time which is why I didn't ask someone in front of my for their receipt, ours was 1:52, or make a fuss about the 1:50 time on the card.  
 
At the final control
A different cashier in Van Alstene was outside talking with his GF. ATM Reciept showed 8:53 it seemed longer then 2 minutes before he came in and sold us our goodies and signed it 8:55.  
 
Other misc times that were all my fault  
Heading out
Pulley explosion, chain jam, chain jam all in the initial parking lot 15 minutes
Picture stop in the beginning 10 minutes (I saw long my wife says shorter)
Stopping at the Exxon by 35 on the first leg and having to wait for the rest room 15 minutes
 
Coming back
Chain mysteriously falling off coasting down a hill 5 minutes
Digging out the helmet lights ouf of my bag and doing battery changes on all rear lights that had been running all day. 5 minutes
Pictures at finish, Loading up the bikes, cleaning up, getting a treat 10 minutes
 
It was a good ride and we learned some stuff like not to make the mistake of trusting a replacement pulley that is 10 miles old to last any better then the one that lasted over 700 miles. Bring more frosted flakes   etc etc.