Seven of us showed up to tackle this adventure together. It was about 39 degrees as we were getting ready and I realized that I had left my thermal pants at home. It wasn’t my choice to rock the shorts and jacket look, but it was comfortable enough.
We got stuck by a train track transfer at 5 miles in where we cross over 31. We sat there for probably 20 minutes waiting for two trains to move. We checked all our other routes in the area, and there was only one other crossing, at Verbena, which we couldn’t be sure wouldn’t have a train on it by the time we got there.
We stopped to feed Sampson 14 miles in. We had heard that he loved peppermint, but up until now had forgotten to pick any up for him. This trip was to be Christmas for him, when we finally brought him peppermint. We had big candy canes, soft peppermint nuggets and soft peppermint sticks ready for him. When we got to him, he had his face stuffed into a bag of oats and was not about to be bothered. I walked up to the fence, held up a piece of peppermint and whistled for him. He finally took his face out of the bag and looked at me for about 5 second before going right back to his oats.
We checked in with the horse that we have called Shotgun, to see if him or his donkeys might eat some peppermints, but we met his owner as he was feeding him and learned that Shotgun’s name is actually Buckshot. We were destined to carry the peppermint with us.
The roads were in perfect shape, after some good rain the day before. The day started out in jackets at 40 degrees and ended after several strip downs at 65 degrees. The sky was clear, but there was a little bit of wind. It was headwinds in the open spots on the way out, with not a single tailwind on the way back. It was another perfect day in the middle of winter for a ride, and next weekend looks promising as well, with a high of 74, so keep your eyes on the site for a ride for 12/27.
My quads gave out about 15 miles from the finish. Thanks to Kev and Merrill for keeping an eye on the sweeper. I used a blonde and a red horse as an excuse to give the legs a break for a minute and checked to see if they wanted any peppermint. The blonde one was a little jumpy, I think they both were a little freaked out by the bikes. I got the red one to come to the fence and sniff some peppermints, but couldn’t get him to try one, so I left him a few on the ground. We met their owner and learned that the blonde one is named Pretty Boy, and the red one is Wally.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays everybody! Thanks to everyone that showed up and made this ride so entertaining.