Ride Report: 66 Miles, 2,039 Total Miles, 19.8 Avg. mph, 1,873 Ft. Climbing, 4,695 Calories.
Breaking News (again)>>>New Course Speed Record = 50.8 mph. Yes, you read that right. It came on a section of today's route that I'd been eyeing for a couple of weeks now. It looked like a 7% down slope in excess of a mile. If the wind was right (or at least mild) I thought I might have a chance of hitting 50. Luck was with me...
And in keeping with my desire to develop new talent, the remainder of today's post will once again be ghost written. No - a different ghost this time. We shall see if this one is any more successful at remaining anonymous. I hold out high hopes as he married into the family. But if not, well - ya can't blame it on genetics.
Without further ado, I shall now turn the reigns over to ghost writer number 2.
Long live the Teamsters. I just had to say it. Taking this picture is one of the many favorable reasons for having a professional Teamster on-board The Rig. Underrated and under-thanked if you ask me.
Here is Brad and his minions on the start of their second day of riding, and what a day it would be. It mostly went "downhill" from here.
The landscape was breathtaking in all directions. We stopped for this picture, and gasped when we all turned around to see snow-capped mountains slowly disappearing in the distance. As Brad has mentioned in blogs before, pictures just don't do it justice -- a crying shame for the reader.
Thumbs up, let's do this. Smiles all-around. Mountains in the rear-view, mountains out the driver-side window, plus a river sparkling in the morning's sunlight. It doesn't get better than this! And like I said, "downhill from here."
Flashback to RASDAK 2017, KnP were more dead-weight than riding companions. Brad would "pull" for 8 miles, and KnP would pull for 1 mile each. Contrast that to this ride, where we consistently alternated every mile. Less "I'm falling off" the pace and more "woohoo."
Like all handy-men say, "any project is manageable if you have the right tools." Case and point here. With a well-adjusted seat height, bike shoes/clips instead of tennis shoe cages, and ample amount of preparation, this ride was "easy."
Long live Queen Susan. Here she is 20 miles into the ride, waiting for us. She never sits still for long, which is why she is a "professional." It was an honor to be served by a real life Teamster.
After cruising along at 35 mph for over 15 miles (not exaggerating), we stopped at The Rig for lunch. Susan spotted this cottage along our route and pulled in to check it out.
The Mountain Aries Market was recently opened by two local women. The store features organic produce, food/drink and even healthy dog food. We wanted to support local efforts so we chatted them up and partook in "healthy" food choices.
Pictured here is the crew, and Ashley and Olympia, the originators of the store. We mentioned to them we had seen several "land for sale" signs along the way, but one in particular caught our attention. 800+ acres of land with an 8,000 sq ft house (if you can call it a house) to boot. Olympia mentioned the billionaire that sold the property had to put it on sale from $6.1 million to $4.6 million because "he had too many parcels of land and just needed to get rid of it." None of us felt sorry for him. Granted, the sale price is a big number, but compare that to the $40,000 price tag for ONE ACRE!!! in Breckenridge, CO.
Leave it to Brad to buy "healthy" Oreo's from Ashley and Olympia's store. Newman-O's are exempt from high fructose corn syrup and some other fake ingredients, but let's be honest, Newman-O's have no harvest season.
Interesting story though, the "palm oil" used in Oreo's is replaced in Newman-O's by palm-fruit oil, which avoids deforestation.
Brad's "experiments" will surely continue with the newfound variable that is organic Oreo's.
Some people have a "green thumb"making them excellent stewards of plant-life. Brad has "brown thumbs" which must be the reason he avoids vegetables at all costs.
Since the trip started, "this is blog worthy," or "this is going in the blog" has become somewhat repetitive. It either features something interesting, noteworthy, or is used as an idle threat of embarrassment. The above picture is an example of the later.
Shout out to the benefits of UPF-rated clothing. Next best thing? Sunscreen! "Bah," Brad says. "I got a bug stuck in the sunscreen on my nose today! Another reason not to wear sunscreen." There is no convincing this man.
Did I mention the outlandish land sale price earlier? Well now you get the drift. Here is round 3 of the Porsche club that drove past us over our lunch-break. Each round of cars had 10-20 cars of various models. Everybody had their favorite, but mine was easily the red Porsche 911 with a black spoiler (3rd car in this picture). Rich man/woman's country to say the least.
Notice how the road disappears in the foreground here? Also notice the road in the background, several hundred feet below? I wasn't lying when I said "it was all downhill," and this shot wasn't where Brad broke his T/A speed record either...
The last 10 or so miles to Canon City was blistering hot and no longer downhill, but we made it in three complete pieces and met Susan at The Rig near the Arkansas River. Here we all are, literally feet from The Rig and the river. No mosquitoes, only rednecks buzzed around our campsite late into the evening.
Canon City is well-known for its rafting tours of the Royal Gorge and it's two federal prisons. It seemed we had moved away from millionaire's row to death row in a matter of 67, downhill miles.
Post Script: Not bad. He captured the essence of my gripe with sun screen, but what the heck is a Brachiosaurus - and how on earth did he know how to spell it? A man of many talents.
Till next time.
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