black friday

i woke up just before 5:00 this morning and realized it was black friday, the day people get up at ungodly hours to fight with other people for a tickle me elmo or a beanie baby or a care bear or whatever happens to be the "kill for" item that year. since no one else was going to do anything sensible, i decided it was up to me to balance things out a bit. the world needed a hero on a bike doing good to counteract all the evil being perpetrated at the malls of america. to quote a somewhat famous cucumber: "i am that hero!"

by the time i found all my gear and had my bike ready to go, it was about 5:10. i rolled down elm street and turned left to head toward eudora. i cruised up and over highway 10 and pulled in at the kwik shop for some gatorade and a powerbar.

my purchases secured, i headed back out on the road. i went south to eudora's main east-west road and turned west to go to lawrence on old highway 10. this highway is flat as anything between eudora and lawrence, but there are steep hills on both ends of it. i had to climb up to the top of the hill in eudora before plunging down to the flats and then i had to climb up into lawrence on 15th street. i crossed the railroad tracks just before a train came roaring through. the crossing guards came down before i reached the crest of the hill.

it was much warmer in lawrence. the buildings blocked the wind some making the "feels like" temperature a bit more bearable. i didn't know what the actual temperature was at this point, but i knew i was glad for the respite.

when i reached haskell, i turned north and rode up to 11th street before turning west again. i rode up 11th to new hampshire and turned north again. new hampshire took me to 7th which took me to kentucky which took me to 6th.

heading west on 6th i encountered what may be the longest hill i've ever climbed. it wasn't terribly steep, but it just kept going and going. i was blessed by green lights almost all the way up. there was one red light at a three-way intersection. i didn't stop. it was dark. no one was coming from any direction and the side of the intersection without a road was my side. i'm sorry beccie. i couldn't help myself. i slowed a bit if that makes it any better. i took the gutter and kept rolling upwards.

the hill ended eventually and i enjoyed a brief downhill. i was tempted by breakfast at burger king and mcdonald's, but that would mean participating in the evil of black friday. i wasn't about to spend money unnecessarily before 9:00.

i followed 6th until i reached kasold and then headed south. there was a great hill that i'd never managed to hit going down. riding up that hill is painful, so i figured down would be better than a snot-free nose on a chilly day.

before i got to the hill, i passed tam o' shanter street. from that point on all my inner conversation was spoken with a scottish accent. i said, "top o' the morning to ye," to everyone i met. that's probably poor scottish, but it's all i know so give me a wee break if ye please.

riding down the hill was marvelous. actually, marvelous hardly describes it. i sped down, down, down and banked hard into the parking lot at hyvee. i spun this way and that dodging parked cars and ended up out on highway 10 again.

following 10 took me up another nasty long hill and then i got to plunge down one again. wheeee! it was even more fun than the kasold hill and i'm really glad i decided not to ride on the bike path. about halfway down i went streaking past a runner out with his (or her) two black dogs. i'm not sure i would've seen them fast enough to avoid them had i been on the same strip of asphalt. thank God for small favors!

when i hit the bottom of the hill, i did a quick right-left and hopped on the bike path for the equal and opposite uphill. to say it was awful would be an understatement. it wasn't as long as the hill i climbed on 6th, but it was steeper. i growled and dug deep and made it up and over the top.

i spun around the traffic circle at the top and then rode up to the clinton lake state park road. since my road teed there, i turned south and headed down toward the dam. i'd ridden across the dam earlier in the year while scouting the kansas ironman 70.3 bike route for my dailymile friends and i wanted to do it again.

turns out that was one of my less fortunate decisions. the wind off the lac (i'm still thinking scottish here) was cold! the wind was from the west and as it crossed the water it picked up speed and dropped a degree or two. brrrrr! my fingers which had been fine to this point started to ache a bit. i had to flex them over and over to keep the blood flowing.

as soon as i was across the wind and out of the wind, i had to climb the stupid hill that leaves that dam and climbs up and around a bend before diving back down to the land beneath the lake. the climb was not fun. the dive was a blast.

i got to the bottom of the hill and turned right. before i'd ridden a mile, i realized i'd turned the wrong way. i recognized the wakarusa school on the east side of the road - that's where i dropped a water bottle at full speed on a group ride last spring - so i turned around in the parking lot and headed back toward lawrence.

i was thankful for the break from hills that the road i was on gave me. it was mostly flat back to highway 59.

reaching the highway, i decided to turn north toward town and then sneak around the south side of town past the baker wetlands. i zigged and zagged and then turned south on what would have been haskell had i gone north. this road is one of my favorites. it passes along the river's wetlands and then passes through a series of rolleurs before reaching county road 458, my route back to eudora.

i sped across the flats and took the rolleurs in stride. i rolled on to 458 and then turned east. there were a few long, fairly shallow hills on the county's thuroughfare and a short steep hill or two and then nothing. a short flat section and then a left turn onto church street and a couple of miles back into eudora.

when i reached my parents' housing development, i spun around the outside edges completing my loop without using the same section of road twice. the thermometer read 20 degrees! no wonder my fingers and toes were numb.

the world is back in balance now. it is after 9:00. i shall shower and then - *gulp* - shop. grrrr! (43.60 miles @ 14.9mph)