Ride Report: 13 Miles, 2,504 Total Miles, 19.6 Avg. mph, 240 Ft. Climbing, 1,085 Calories. Note to the reader: these are the 11 miles I didn’t do yesterday when we stopped in Newton to get The Rig checked out. More below...
So - let’s deal with The Rig first. As it turns out getting The Rig back up and running wasn’t a big deal. It took most of the morning, but fortunately the transmission just needed serviced. I consider this a learning opportunity. For example, I learned that transmission fluid for The Rig costs $14.99 a quart. Yup - me - a life long learner... When the guy was done we headed back to the Dillons parking lot so Susan could get some milk there (less per gallon than transmission fluid by the quart) while I headed to Elbing with Delta - which was our original destination yesterday. The reader may have two questions. 1: “Elbing? Elbing?” (This counts as one question.) 2: “So why didn’t you ride more than just 11 miles?”
First answer: Yes there is such a place as Elbing, KS - population 208. As was made apparent in the ride report, it’s about 13 miles East of Newton. The town itself sits maybe a half mile North of E. 1st Street which constitutes the ACA route hereabouts. More importantly from our perspective, the Crossway Bible Church has a driveway and a large parking lot immediately off 1st St. And they were willing to let us set up shop for the night. Perfect.
Second answer: I rode to Elbing and arrived at about noon. Once past Elbing the ACA map has this warning, “NOTE: no services on route for next 40.5 miles.” Given that it would soon be afternoon in Kansas (with correspondingly high humidity and temperatures in the mid 90s) the answer was obvious. Just gain back the lost miles from yesterday, chalk it up as one wasted day between yesterday and today, and move on. So here we are in, or almost in, Elbing where we had planned to be last night.
I hope the reader will forgive the brevity of today's post. But gimme a break, it was 11 miles and there's not much in the way of scenery out here. Let me put it this way, when Susan suggests that I ought to have stopped to take a pic of a dead armadillo for the blog, you know we're jonesing for some scenery. (Google it)
So - here we go. And if you're one of those people ("those people") who are just here for the entertainment value, go directly to the end of the post...
While it was still exceedingly humid today, at least there was no fog. Of course, this may have been aided by the fact that we didn't hit the road till maybe 1100. Speaking of the road, this is pretty much the same road upon which Delta and I rode during that miserable day South of Quivera National Wildlife Refuge - shame on Stafford and Reno Counties. However, on this occasion my compliments to Sedgwick and Butler Counties. Since shaking the proverbial dust from our pedals as we left Reno County, the road has been in excellent condition.
More of this. On this occasion there is a medium sized box culvert under the road. But I can't believe that this is the typical condition of this field. It appears to me that this spring's rains washed out a substantial portion of this field and turned it into a de facto pond. Ouch.
At this point I think it bears mention that Newton is a railroad town. Susan and I figured this out last night in between rounds of young men (Do young ladies drive cars like this?) roaring up and down the street in front of Dillons until about 0200. First, get a job - surely going to work at 0800 Monday negates the positive aspects of staying up till 0200 that same morning. Second, at what point in time did it become cool to take a car with a motor the same size as one finds in a typical blender, and remove the exhaust in its entirety? I don't care how loud it is, its still a blender motor - not cool. Put a muffler back on it and get your testosterone surge somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, I'm fan of cool sounding engines. But the subset of cool sounding engines is limited to V8 motors.
Forgive the rant, back to Newton being a railroad town... In between bouts of kids driving blenders up and down the street, trains passed by every 15 minutes. Apparently they must deliver to Dillons from tracks located immediately behind the store, because it sounded like they were that close. Suggestion to all the kids driving loud blenders, park 'em on the RR tracks. Both problems solved.
So - when we made it to the Crossway Bible church parking lot today, we did so in the anticipation of a good night's sleep tonight - no blenders and no trains.
This is The Rig set up for the night. The reader will have to forgive the sweaty, if colorful, riding apparel drying on the trailer.
Fifteen minutes later we realized we were half right. The cursed things follow us like a plague of locust.
But enough of our problems.
It is now time, readers, for the first annual Thin Blue Ride suntan contest.
Contestant #1.
Contestant #2.
The observant reader will note that I have omitted the contestant's names. Rather than being an inadvertent error, this was intentional. We here at The Thin Blue Ride want to ensure a fair and equitable contest - and having the contestants remain anonymous is the best way to do that. Readers should post their selection for the winner of the contest at the bottom of this page. Once The Thin Blue Ride's accounting department has tabulated the totals, the winner will be announced in a future post. Readers have until 2300 hours Sunday, August 11th to make their selection. Vote early, vote often.
BTW - don't cheat and try to call Susan to figure out who the contestants are. She's clueless and will just be confused, having been napping when I took the contestant's pics. I'm sure she'll be fine with it...
Till next time.
My vote is for contestant number 1. Contestant number 2 has a darker tan, but number one is a more even tan.
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