Monday, May 31, 2010

last breath of air

this morning i rode my last "thick air" ride of the week. i left the house where we're staying and after a mile or so on sandy roads, i turned west onto u.s. highway 54 and headed towards greensburg. the wind was at my back, so i cruised along at a pretty good clip considering the wheels beneath me. fat tires just don't roll very well on pavement.

just before greensburg, i turned in at brenham and looped around the farmer's co-op there. brenham is nothing more than a grain elevator and a few out buildings. it is famous for nothing. i don't know if there ever was a town called brenham. it's been just the co-op in the 26 years i've known of its existence. the only interesting thing i know about it is that it was the place my in-laws hid their get away car when they got married. they thought they'd keep it away from the "decorators" if they parked it behind the elevator. seems there's more to that story, but the details are too fuzzy to report.

having looped around brenham, i continued on to greensburg and did the same there. the loop around this town that was just a few years ago half destroyed by a massive tornado. it was interesting to take in the sights of town. there are, of course, tons of new houses and businesses. riding around the outskirts of town, i covered an extra five miles or so.

back out on the highway, i headed to haviland. i turned in at the dirt road just to the west of town and snuck in the back way past the high school, around the north side of my alma mater, barclay college, and down south to the friends church. rather than take the extra half mile west to the highway, i turned east and then south to ryan k's coffee shop. i was hoping he or his wife would be there, but they weren't in. hannah had just left the shop. no hot refreshments! bummer. nothing left to do but ride back to the house. the last mile to mile and half was back on sand. since it hasn't rained much around here recently, the sand was loose and kind of tricky. i managed to stay upright until i pulled into the driveway. i clicked out of my right pedal and fell left. stupid! (28.45 miles @ 13.7mph)

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