It was a beautiful day for a bike ride...  on a darned tough course...   This was actually the first time I'd done this Rally, but had ridden the Forestburg - St. Jo leg with the Rando group a few times before, so I knew part of the terrain.   I carpooled up with Dave Rothgeb, his son, and another friend of theirs...   Announced registration was 1650 or so, so lots of folks there.  Rolling around before the start, I greeted the various 'benters present (Shellene&Bryan, Greg&Alexis, Jay, Patti, MarkL, Carolyn, Ric Clark, and met other 'benters from Texas and Oklahoma), as well as the 20 or so GDB'ers that were there.  Apparently, Sadowski and Corsa Ken took off an hour early, because they needed to get back, so I missed 'em.
 
Rothgeb and I were in for the 100K, but weren't planning to hit it hard, and doing a stop at every rest stop, because Dave's still adjusting to the Stratus.  The wind was in our faces most of the way during the day -- started out from the SSW, switch to the West when we turned that way, switched to NW when we turned north, and finally settled in from the NNW for the last two legs, giving us a nice tailwind for the finish.  But it wasn't all that bad, and made for nice cooling, because the sun was out in force...
 
This terrain up there is very pretty, overall, and the roads are still in pretty good shape.  But this is a tough course - there were a LOT of hills that were climbed at 8mph or less, and the rest stops were typically set just before a climb began... but the downhills were a nice reward for the climbs!  And Greg wasn't kidding the other day -- on one hill in particular after St. Jo, I hit 48mph just coasting...  probably could have hit 50 if I'd tried to, but really wasn't interested...      because I was videoing with camera in right hand...
 

 
North of St. Jo is a large wind farm area, with 60-foot bladed turbines... pretty cool...
 

 
The 4th rest stop was starting to run out of goodies - and there were at least 50+ riders still behind us, we heard.  After the 4th rest stop, there was one especially nasty climb, which I may have dropped to 4mph on....  but made it.  After that, the last 7-8 miles were very nice and flat by comparison.   Finished with 60.6 miles and a 15.0 average for the day, taking 5 hours to complete the route.  By that time, we were ready for the beer, and went over to the Germanfest for about an hour...  
 
What'd the rest of you do?
 

Best Muenster ever! Beautiful weather, great company; it was nice, for a change, to have something left in the tank after the 65K .

Those were some tough hills yesterday, and I got a darn flat just past the 3rd rest stop.  Man I was embarressedted to put my trike in the back of that SAG truck and had to be driven to the registration were I parked.  I was hoping I didn't see anyone I knew, but to no avail.  One of my friends saw me and had the biggest laugh of his life.  I should have rode back with Patti when I saw her heading back, but nooooooooooooo, I had to try to climb all those hills.
 
I will know better next year.......

Quote:

 
You just gotta try that new energy drink.

Quote from Ric_Clark on May 1^st, 2011, 5:00pm:

 
No spare tubes?

My love/hate relationship with Muenster continued this year.  Last year I wasn't in shape for this ride, went out with the big dogs and paid for it dearly.  This year, I was in shape, and was going to run with the big dogs to the end, and that's what I did.  I stayed with them to the end of the flat section; ended up with unbelievable speed wobbles on the first downhill.  I was able to slow the bike down using the grass and both feet, checked the wheel and other parts, everything seemed ok, so I tightened the wheel and continued.  Next downhill, same issue.  This time I was prepared and already on the shoulder.  Stopped, removed and reset the front wheel and headed for the third downhill, figuring that if it happened again my day was done.  No wobbles at all, but for the rest of the ride I was taking it even easier than I normally do on descents.
 
Once I got rolling, I had a chance to pass a large number of people, slowing and talking to those I knew, or if they were on a bent even if I didn't know them.  Since I had planned to run hard, I didn't stop at any rest stops and saw Greg just as he left one.  Now that I had a rabbit I ramped it up to catch him, rode with him to the first downhill, and then had to play catchup again.  I left him on the major climb north of town and solo'd the rest of the way in.  
 
After that, met Shellene at the car and off to the festival.  Since this is a traditional ride for us, with the nieces/nephews we will be back again next year; who knows what will go wrong for me then  

Here are my 'bent-related pics from Muenster -- no titles, but uploaded...
 
http://s977.photobucket.com/albums/ae256/pbrown8js/MuensterRally2011/