Memorial Day Ride

General Doyle Military Cemetery New Jersey

After three days of wind, rain, and cold today was finally the kind of day that we expect at the end of May. I left the house a little late but was not going to miss the first decent day in a week. Nothing really significant to report except that I did head over to the military cemetery pictured above. The photo doesn't really do it justice. It is a huge cemetery and every single grave has a small American flag to mark the gravesite. I'm assuming that perhaps a Boy Scout group or something similar makes it their mission to get all the flags posted and it is most impressive. There were many people of every possible variety on the cemetery roads and searching out particular graves: motorcyclists with their Rolling Thunder vests, young people, mid-aged, elderly, black, white - all presumably remembering brothers, sons and daughters, fathers, grandfathers, husbands. Riding through the grounds I felt like I was participating in a kind of religious experience. I gave my own silent salute of tribute to these who made the ultimate sacrifice and rode out with a sense of solemnity and emotion that I don't often feel on a bike ride....

Too much work...

The new tube I put on last night held and out I went today. Once I made it the first eight or ten miles I knew I would be OK. Completely different day today: very humid and once the sun finally broke through the fog the temps got up into the high 80s before I was safely home. First day in such heat and I was drinking like crazy. I also decided it was a day to get in some hill work and I got more than I bargained for: a couple of mile long climbs, three different hills where the grade exceeded 20% and the first time this year that I hit 4000 for the entire ride. I ended up doing 72 miles and not surprisingly broke my (and my dentist's) no Gaterade rule. I keep thinking that in three weeks I will start my Ohio to Boston venture with a 98 mile/6000 feet of climbing day and I'd certainly like to think that I will be ready.

And so it goes....

 Sourlands stream

Today was one of those days. I'm more and more focused on getting ready for my trip to Marysville and the completion of the cross-country adventure. So I did about 65 miles yesterday and figured I would follow up with another 60 or so today and maybe crank it up a bit tomorrow and do an 80. The day was perfect: sunny and warm and very little wind (of which we have had a lot this year). I passed a road named "Lost Rd" and thought I should really take a picture of that - how many times have I been lost and here is a street sign which defines it. While I am slightly distracted I hit a real pothole and immediately I have my very first flat of the year. So no big deal right? I've changed hundreds of flats, this won't take long. I pull the tube, find the leak and check the tire, no problem. Insert new tube, fire up the CO2 and wham, the second tube is immediately flat. The hole is in a completely different place and is not the snake eyes of a pothole flat but a little tear in the tire that looks like one caused by glass. So I go over the tire one more time: nothing, it is in fact almost new and the inside looks fine. I try a little patch and fire up the CO2 (my last one) again. Same result - I've now had three flats in about 8 minutes and have no more tubes, no more CO2. I have only my phone and a rough idea of how to give Susan directions - assuming that is that she if even home....Needless to say I did connect, she did figure out how to find me - GPS's are wonderful - and the crippled bike and I made it safely home. And hour later I had torn the tube out again, thoroughly examined both wheel and tire and could find nothing wrong. So I pumped up tube 3 and will wait and see. And Susan and I decided it was a good night to go out for dinner - she earned it and I wanted a cold beer....
On another note I've been following a couple of blogs from the cross country group. They are somewhere East of Flagstaff Arizona seeing high desert and lots of climbing. I am truly looking forward to meeting them in Marysville in a couple of weeks.

A perfect spring day...

After three days of rain the sun came out this morning and we had what was perhaps our first almost-summer day. The temps went up to the low eighties and there was barely a cloud in the sky. I went out thinking of my cross-country colleagues who are now assembling in Los Angeles and will set out on their epic adventure on Sunday morning. There are emails flying all over the place and even though I don't join the group until Marysville Ohio I am part of the group address so I am part of the excitement although from a considerable distance. One part of me is a bit envious but by the same token I also think I have a bit more training to do before I'm really ready for the day to day rigors of the tour. I'm just as happy riding the New Jersey roads for awhile. And in that vein I had some good news yesterday...Tom Ryan (my roomie from both '09 and the Maine/Fla ride) wants to go out with me to Ohio and ride the first day with the group. It will be good to start off my ride with him - will be an auspicious and appropriate start for the ride.            

The photo at top, left is interesting. I stopped for a bit of water and a fig newton along a country road and the little flag caught my eye. It turns out to be a kind of mini-cemetery from the late 1700s. And more surprising, all the grave markers that I could read were Revolutionary War veterans/casualties. There are the half dozen standing markers and then maybe another 8 or 10 small markers flush with the ground that go back a few yards into the woods. Although it is a bit overgrown it is also obvious that someone must tend these grave sites on at least an occasional basis. It was an amazing little discover and I was somewhat overwhelmed by the significance of the site. And an interesting coincidence...roughly a mile away is one of the largest active military cemeteries in New Jersey; in fact a funeral headed for the gate passed by as I was taking my photos.                                                                                                                                     

The second photo is simply a pretty horse farm - don't ask where the horses are, they were there last week- that I thought worth stopping to take a shot.                                                                                               

April showers bring May flowers...

There are a few four-letter words in the cycling lexicon that are better left unsaid in normal conversation. The first is the dreaded F-word and the second is the W-word - both four letter words but equally ugly to a rider. I've been lucky recently with the F-word (f=flat for the uninitiated) recently. No glass, no nails and none of those nasty sssssssss sounds while I'm riding along. However, the last couple of days the W-word has been much in my world...again, for the uninitiated, W = wind. Yesterday I would swear that there was some evil force watching my route and every time I turned and changed directions the wind changed and continued to blow directly into my face. I did a relatively short ride of 35 miles but the wind was in my face for at least 20. Would be good training if I were headed to Texas...Made me want to warn all my cross-country colleagues but I didn't - they will make their own discoveries just as we did. Today was a little less intense but I had chosen a hilly route and so every time I hit the wind it seemed like it was combined with a 12% grade. In fact I did a much longer route and much climbing today but on the way home the last ten miles is flat and even directly into the wind it was a piece of cake. And as evidenced by the two photos today was a truly beautiful day - dogwoods, flowering fruit trees all in bloom combined with a perfectly blue sky and temps in the high sixties are pretty hard to beat.