So while all of you were at the Hotter than Hell I wimped out and went north to Indiana again. Indiana apparently has one pay ride for the entire year and this one went through areas I grew up around and of course the temperatures never got higher than 80 degrees (80 Indiana degrees = 70 Texas degrees). I rode with my brother Tim who I have infected with the bicycle virus, this was his first century and my first this year.
 
Differences between pay rides up there compared to here
 
1. Maybe 100 to 200 riders, besides me only 2 recumbents and a trike, they had no idea what to make of my Baron
 
2. You get there between 7 and 11AM, pay $25 and off you go, no mass start, no number tags, no wrist band, no Star Spangled Banner, no finish line.
 
3. 3 rest stops....period.  
 
4. There is no #4
 
5. No cops stopping traffic, normally this wasn't a problem however on the century route you had some issues with traffic, I guess they figure if you can do a century you can handle a busy intersection.
 
6. This year had the most convoluted route map I've ever seen, several times I was convinced we were going the wrong way. (we weren't)
 
7. I think I saw 1 SAG truck
 
8. T-Shirt costs extra, there is no bag of goodies
 
9. Most roads were smooth and awsome. A few near Rainsville had chipseal although it wasn't the really bad kind, the biggest problem was stray gravel at some intersections.
 
10. That day we started at 55 degrees and finished at 65 degrees, I had armwarmers and a vest on and still felt cold.
 
11. Miles and miles of bean and cornfields, people sitting on porches, avoided farm tractors and I swore i heard dueling banjos a few times.
 
12. At each rest stop they had ham radio groups talking to people in Oregon, Maryland and Mexico, It did not appear they communicated with SAG personnel although I could be wrong.
 
The ride ended up being 105.7 miles, total climb was over 5,000 ft although I seriously doubt the Garmin's accuracy. My average was 16.4 because my brother isn't very fast and got slower as the ride progressed (not my fault he rides the wrong bike). I was amazed and proud he finished considering he's only been on the bike a little over a year.
 
Pictures at www.lifeonabaron.blogspot.com if you want to see the strange route.
 

Quote from aikigreg on Sep 2^nd, 2009, 6:07am:

 
It was fun, I haven't been on some of those roads in 30 years, that area never really changes and pretty much looks identical to what I remember from the 70's