May 8-10 - stories to add to my repertoire

I definitely acquired some stories to add to my repertoire this past weekend. In comparison, the Simcoe 200 was nothing !

I left here around 10am on Friday, stopping at Home Depot in Barrie for some plumbing parts for the job at Stef's and the Canadian Tire for something else. Next stop was Stef's, where I dropped off my tools and the assembled plumbing that I'd prepared, and then headed for the U.S. border.

I normally go through the Queenston/Lewiston crossing and did so this time even though the wait time was 10 minutes compared to the Rainbow bridge "little to no wait time" that was quoted by the border information 800 number. Well, the line beside me took 10 minutes; mine took 15-20. I just thought that I'd encountered a very thorough person but then found, when it was my turn, that it was a trainee. My story completely confused him -- live in Florida going for a bike ride in Rochester. "What kind of a bike ride ?" -- "Well, bicycle, a club ride" as I gestured to the bike that took up the entire back of the car. -- "Where's that plate from, Alberta?" -- "Florida". "Where's your cottage" -- "north of Parry Sound, do you know the area ?" -- "no" ... seems that he's been told to ask questions to see if the responses aren't readily available, confusing, contradictory ... you get the idea.

Onward ...

It's not a long drive to Ontario NY from Oakville Ontario (I know, it's confusing). About 2.5 hours after leaving Stef's, plus the border wait, plus the time to find a Subway, I was at the motel. I found out why the motel was only $37. I've never slept in such a musty room. Sandy advised me to just forget the $37 and find another place, but I didn't have the energy to look. It wasn't moldy -- didn't bother my sinuses, but any time I took a deep breath I would practically choke ... no, that's exaggeration, I'll save that for when I'm older and then the air will be thick with mist and there will be water running down the walls :).

I got up a little after 4am and found to my chagrin that it was raining. I got my water bottles out of the car and filled them up, finding that I'd left a puddle on the table and thought -- boy, am I sloppy. Nope ... one water bottle was leaking ... great ... but a little duck tape and it survived the day. It still dripped slowly but it survived.

At 6am I wet off for Pete Dusel's -- he runs the rides from his house. He's got a spot right on Lake Ontario, which was fairly close to the hotel. His wife Sandy was helping riders check in and at 7am, nine of us set out -- now with scattered clouds but still a little cool so I was wearing my high-vis yellow rain jacket, long sleeved jersey, short sleeved jersey ... but no leg warmers, thank goodness -- it was mid 50's at that point. We'd just gotten to the end of his driveway, about 1/2 mile, when the tenth rider showed. At that point the group broke up; I caught up to a rider ahead of me and we chatted for a bit; there was one rider ahead of him; another rider caught up to me and we rode as a threesome for about two miles. At that point the rider that I'd caught up to picked up his pace a little and I never saw him again. He and the one in front of him finished two hours ahead of me -- very strong riders !

I rode with the other until the information Control at mile 20, side by side on the quiet roads and then we both stopped to take off some clothes. He told me to go ahead ... he'd catch up ... but he trailed behind until I stopped at a Burger King at mile 35 to fill up my water bottles. He decided to go back to the CVS on the other side of the intersection and I never saw him again.

At mile 45 a rider caught up to me -- Juan from Ithaca -- the one who had arrived late and probably started about 10 minutes after everyone else. He said that he'd past the larger group at about mile 20, so they were quite far back. Mile 47 was Canandaiga, the next Control, but Pete has set up his Brevet cards without naming specific establishments -- which I just found out at that point. Juan had gone ahead but had stopped for a second at a convenience store just as we both got to the end of Canandaiga. We backtracked a hundred yards to a Hess station, shared a gallon of water and I set out again. He still had to use the restroom and told me to go ahead.

From Canandaiga it was a gradual gain in altitude as we continued to head south. The wind was in my face -- I was happy for that because it meant that the trip back would have the wind at my back. Juan caught up to me about 10 miles before the next Control at Naples, said hello and motored on by. I caught him at Naples as he was preparing to leave that Control. I filled my water bottles again, used the restroom and headed north -- the real climbing ahead.

Naples is at 78 miles on the route and 800' elevation; the top of the climb at 2200'. Add to that some dips and re-climbs and that stretch accumulated about 1600-1700 feet of climbing. The wind was from my back; it was sunny; I was going slowly; it was hot ! At the top I put in some "bonus" miles and climbing, because I mis-read the cue sheet and missed the information control. I did the park loop twice as a result to find the lookout and count the number of park benches for the information control question. That probably cost me 20 minutes and 4 miles.

Now it was time to descend. We took a parallel route north but it was a similar profile -- a steep descent followed by a gradual descent followed by rolling hills back to Pete's. Partway down that gradual descent section I judged that the gathering clouds were not going to spare me and I pulled into a convenience store to put on my rain jacket and grab a bag of pretzels. That was the only solid food that I had on the ride. I stayed there 15-20 minutes -- the sky opened and it poured. I wasn't in that much of a hurry that I needed to ride in crap like that so I waited until it eased then headed out with my rain jacket and helmet cover in place. It rained for about 1/2 hour and then I had a time of partly cloudy. I left the rain jacket on though and the helmet cover in place ... it looked like I was in for more.

Wow -- for a time the wind was at my back and now it really picked up. I had turned east, was going 30 mph down a slight hill and the wind was blowing strongly at my back. The leaves on the ground were passing me !! Oh oh ... I'm in for it. What happened to that South wind ? I turned north, and the wind picked up even more. It was blowing from my side so strongly that I decided that I wasn't going to be able to hold the road and needed to stop. As I slowed down I realized that it was only the gyroscopic effect of the wheels that was holding me upright and if I slowed too much the wind was going to push me over the grassy embankment beside me. It wasn't steep nor high ... I made mental plans for how I was going to fall in the opposite direction from the bike. I kept going.

The rain came down -- no, the rain came sideways with the wind. It pelted me. My helmet cover was an interesting thing, but did nothing for rain coming from the side. I was totally exposed -- open fields or trees without leaves, nothing to block the wind. There was hardly any traffic, but when a car did go by I almost fell leftwards due to the sudden lack of wind but that only lasted a second and the wind came at me again and held me up.

The wind eased; the sun came out; I had 15 more miles to go. I pulled into that same Burger King, used the restroom, took off my helmet cover and completed the ride.

We left at 7am; I got back at 4:30. With just over 8 hours of rolling time, 6000 feet of climbing, 9.5 hours of elapsed time, it was a good ride. I could have saved about 40 minutes without the bonus miles and stop at the convenience store for the downpour, but oh well, that's the way it goes. Juan finished at 3:30. Somewhere behind me were the other 6 riders, hopefully they had a safe day and completed their rides.

My bike was a mess -- leaves stuck to it, dried by the sun at the end of the ride. Mottled with dirt, it would wait until I got back north to be cleaned. I used the shower at Pete's -- I had brought my own towel at his request -- and headed out for Oakville.

There is one post-script to the ride however -- when I took my bike out of the car late yesterday I had a flat. I filled the tire and dipped it in the lake, could see bubbles escaping from the rim -- somewhere in the last hour of the ride I got a puncture but the slow leak lasted until I completed the ride. That was good.

I stopped on I490 before hitting I90 to get something to eat. I pulled into a pizza place and had two pieces, then hit the road again. Calling the border information number I found that the Queenston/Lewiston bridge had a 1.5 hour wait time, but the Rainbow and Peace bridges were 0-10 minutes ... so I went to the Rainbow bridge into Niagara Falls Ontario. I waited perhaps 5 minutes and was on my way again, racing against time to Stef's.

I was racing against time because I'd found out from Sandy that Stef and Aaron had decided to come home that day. I called Aaron on his cell phone and found that they were about one hour behind me. I warned him that they might come home to no water if I had any problems with the plumbing. I did have problems, but was turning the water on just as they arrived home.

My plumbing problems started with my copper tubing cutter -- it snapped as I tried to make my first cut on their 3/4" copper pipe. I had to resort to using the hacksaw, which is hard with an unsupported pipe. Regardless, I got that done and then placed my already-assembled unit in place and soldered the elbows. Next I ran into two leaky solder joints. I had been too careful soldering the ball valves, worried about ruining them with too much heat so I had to do some resoldering. That did not take very long though. All told, from starting to drain the house plumbing to turning the water back on it probably took an hour.

I was starved. I felt like something quick and asked if they had any Kraft Dinner ... the product that is called Macaroni and Cheese in the U.S. ... yup, so I made that and ate the whole thing. It was now about 11pm. They were tired and I was surely tired. We all went to bed.

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My plan was to leave Stef's at 6am, which I did. My plan was to hit Mass in Parry Sound at 10am, which I did. I got to Parry Sound around 8:30, did some shopping at Sobeys. By the time I got out of Sobeys it was almost 9am; I waited a few minutes and went into the adjacent Canadian Tire. Out of CT at 9:30, having found a replacement copper tube cutter, a small water pump for my minnow keeper and two more minnow traps, I next went to the Starbucks and had a cappuccino. Next it was off to Mass. Out of Mass at 11am, I headed for the cottage and got there a little after noon.

Sandy had already left at that point, driving to Oakville and back to take Mya home. 8 hours of driving is about the same as driving to Philly from Oakville and about the same mileage ... dogs are very special people though. We do it for our grand-kids, but for our grand-dog ? Some would call us crazy, but otherwise Mya would have had to wait until the 25th when I go down for a dentist appointment or for her "parents" to make a trip up. Next time we'll leave it to the parents :). We've had to do worse with Abby -- have had to arrange travels out of Philadelphia so that she had a place to stay - with Debbie or Stef. That has added 1500 miles to our odometers a few times. These dogs just don't realize how lucky they are to not be relegated to a kennel ... but then I don't want to stay in a kennel either ... but are kennels as musty as the Cornerstone Inn ???

Jason, Lorraine & Gavin were still here when I arrived. I visited with them for a bit. They'd come up to get the place opened, preparing for the Victoria Day weekend when everyone will be up. They left a little after 4pm, about the same time as Sandy arrived -- in fact they left just after Sandy pulled into our driveway, otherwise they'd have passed each other on the road.

I'll probably think of some more to write later, but that's it for now. It's cold out now -- sub freezing when I got up, but supposed to get warmer as the week goes on. There were only a few black flies out yesterday, too cold for them too ! That will change soon.

I've got two weeks off without scheduled rides. That's good. I'll get in some training rides in the meantime to keep my legs going. That ride, on the 30th, is a 300k. The "easy" 200k's are over !

Let the summer begin !