How Mr._Bill & Ms._May go from the North Carolina Mountains (Asheville) to the Coast (Ocean Isle Beach) (430 miles in 7 days) - MOSTLY in the RAIN
on their respective cycling equipment (and how Mr._Bill attempts to clean it all up afterwards), (and how Ms._May does COUNTLESS loads of laundry... afterwards - etc. etc. etc.
We tried, we really (REALLY)
did try to stay dry - we PRAYED for no-RAIN, but our prayers were
answered with EVEN MORE RAIN, but - by and large - even considering the
RAIN we had a "Good Time".
Some Pictures and text:----
Before we actually got started cycling, we visited a place called the "Grovewood Gallery" - and it was pretty spectacular. LOTS of interesting & fun things to look at (and A LOT of opportunities to spend your cold-hard-cash if you happened to have a lot of that to spend)... We didn't spend anything but time there, but we had lunch 'next-door' at a small cafe - where the food was extra-good... Here's a small - short movie(1.1 megs) of some of the 'dynamic' (wind) sculputres planted outside the gallery...
This was our daily route (track logs in different colors) and - yeah - I missed one day - so fire me, huh?!?! - actually the above graphic-overlay on top of a Google Earth image was done with 'just one click' of the software on the Apple Mac Book Air. - the 'missing' day above (Tuesday, the third day) is in another file that I'm 'twiddling' on the Windows XP PC (yeah - YUCH!) - and/or twiddling on another Macintosh - I'll eventually add-back-in that missing-day but twiddling the file will take 'some time'. Do NOT hold your breath waiting for this.
We started out (first day's ride (Sunday, 26th September)) at the "Biltmore Estate" - in Asheville, North Carolina - where Mr. Vanderbilt BUILT a HUGE Mansion, grounds, gardens, etc. etc. etc... - Since we cyclists are typically hard-pressed for both money and sleeping arrangements, we spent the night before the start in a horse-stall at the "Barn" on the Biltmore Estate...
We managed to slide-through the beauties of the Western North Carolina area during Sunday, Monday, Tuesday (September 26-28) in a considerable amount of RAIN... we won't talk a lot about the RAIN, except to say that it was WET (which is, of course, what rain is supposed to be. It was NOT cold (at least not in-tolerably so) - but it was definitely wet. One might think that 'rain-gear' (pants / jacket) was the order of the day but - by and large one is as wet inside the rain-gear (sweat and leaks and all) as one is outside the rain-gear so the bottom-line is that rain gear ain't worth much in these conditions...
BUT will briefly say that there was a 5 mile plus long, no cars, VERY twisty-turny downhill (a part of the "Old US-70" within the Pisgah National Forest (a bit West of "Old Fort, NC")) on Sunday (26th) that Mr._Bill went down approaching the speed of light, in the RAIN!
This was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity so he took it to heart. There was NO VIEW on this route as the trees by the road were tall, un-trimmed, and there was a LOT of FOG, and unless one wanted to end up in those trees, one was paying considerably more attention to steering and braking the trike than to the view that was not there...
The wet-slick-road (recently paved), and the slippery wet-leaves and the no-cars made this a no-holds-barred down-hill for speed freaks like yours truly. The stability of the trike (versus the uprights/two-wheelers) and the lower CG, and three (much-bigger) tire-patches on the road made this for a thrill like none other. The fact that I was running 'slicks' on the front or my trike made this even more challenging in the pouring rain. This downhill was worth the whole week and the price of admission, and I'd definitely do it again if I had the chance.
An opportunity exists to go back to this cycling-only route, within the National Forest, so we're researching what that might take to do...
We don't have a whole lot of pictures for the first few days - the RAIN kept the iPhone in it's little 'house'. I was considerably worried that if I took it out to take a picture - it would get wet and not work - so that's the short-story about lack of pictures for the first few days...
Late Tuesday the sun came out and we camped in our tent in "Mooresville" - and it was good to dry things out - but then on Wednesday morning, again, it RAINED... But leaving that morning in the rain I met one other guy on a "Catrike Speed", he's from Seminole,_Florida, and quite an accomplished rider...
We've had a number of questions about this "Indoor Camping" scene. - what's it like - well: This is a 'typical' indoor camping scene - this one happens to be (we think) in the Hickory YMCA gym. Indoor Camping (as implemented by the people that organize this ride) is typically an indoor stadium or a gym - where - in essence one 'camps' (with no stove or tent, etc.) like one is having a 'big slumber party'... - It's meant for those people without a tent (or in our case with a tent which we don't like very much and don't 'TRUST" in wet-weather.
NOW - here's the thing, though... - There are 'cherished' or 'treasured' spots in any indoor-camping-facility. One has to (like everything else in life) make some trade-offs. - One has to trade-off who are the talktive types, who are the snoring types, etc etc. etc. - how much traffic is going to go by your 'spot' and how close to a door and/or a 'dead-zone' (traffic-wise)....
FOR THIS Set of 'reasons' - there are obvious choices for 'prime-real-estate' and un-obvious choices, also. PLUS - someone who 'looks official' with the school or the YMCA might come along and tell you this or that - and you might find later that they didn't quite know what they were talking about - so EVERYTHING is a 'guess'.
PLUS - the organizers do not "Call" this thing a 'Race', they call it a 'Ride'.... - HOWEVER, it is ULTIMATELY a RACE to get a good indoor camping spot (especially if it's RAINING out and it looks like it might RAIN some more 'tonite'....
LATER in this web-page - a couple of pictures will show that (Thursday, I think) Mr._Bill managed to ride HARD and LONG enough to get to the Indoor Camping spot early enough to get a 'treasured' wall-space!...
This is a picture of me that Ms._May took. I'm in front of some soy-bean-fields which looked quite nice in reality. Somehow though the iPhone's camera is quite good - sometimes it is also a failure at capturing things we'd really like to show you...
This was a warm and toasty coffee shop in some town (we think Albemrale, but not certain. Ms._May and I both found wi-fi for our iPhone(s) - her's is not 'enabled' yet for 3G / GSM phone-calls but it does pretty much else. - So we updated blogs, had some coffee (Ms._May had tea), and generally hung-around a while til we THOUGHT the rain had quit but the bottom-line was it NEVER QUIT that evening - glad we were staying INDOORS, instead of in our tent...
Thursday and Friday and Saturday the weather was much much better. Thursday was my 'personal best' day with over 80 miles and a considerably higher average speed (with almost 7 hours pedalling - a bit over 9 hours elapsed).
At some point - and I can't remember where / when I see this 'reservoir' on the GPS screen. (One can ALWAYS tell a reservoir from a lake because a reservoir always has a straight-line in it (where ther damn is)... - So - I see this reservoir, and I see the 'course-line' heading to the reservoir - and realize: What goes DOWN (the trail to the reservoir) MUST come back UP (that means the trail RISES (we have to CLIMB) - UGH UGH UGH
but this is a view from the bridge across the reservoir - - the side coming down was to the right - the side (I had YET to go up) was to the left... ... ...
Wall Space - a testament to someone Riding FAST and HARD to get to the indoor camping spot EARLY (at least earlier than some others)
This is the evening (we think we remember) it was the Friday evening (after a 60 plus mile pedalling day) where I managed to get to Whiteville (High School) early enough to get a treasured "Wall-Space" - in the indoor camping arena (Whiteville High School's gymnasium).
After we finished (the whole ride (on Saturday, 2 October)) - before noon(which was a significant accomplishment)) at Ocean Isle Beach, we realized we needed something for breakfast (at about 06:30 a.m.) on Sunday morning before getting on the tour-bus for the ride back to Asheville (about 7-8 hours predicted). So we walked almost two miles to the local (NEW) grocery store. We bought some breakfasting things and got some plastic silverware and such and were ready to walk back to the 'Island' - but we were not "THRILLED" by the prospect of a significant "hike" back to our hotel as we had brough 'cycling' shoes not 'hiking' shoes (amongst other problems (like TIRED BODIES))... - SO - we thought, lets see if we can beg someone to take us back to the Hotel...
We managed to find these REALLY NICE PEOPLE with a 'street-legal' golf-cart to give us a ride back to the Island... Kind of hard to see the guy who was steering / driving the golf-cart but he owns a business which buys the 'generic' golf-carts then turns them into street-legal golf-carts by adding things like brake, turn, head lights, a more powerful motor and other such things. ANYWAY _ they were very very nice to give us a ride back to our hotel.
for those with a nose for numbers, here's a 'short-summary' of the statistics for the ride from Mr._Bill's viewpoint. Note some-days my numbers might agree and/or dis-agree with some other numbers because I got lost (or didn't) - or (the organizers made us 'detour' one day because a road was flooded-out because of all the RAIN!... - anyway - numbers for your perusal if you're interested (and yeah - I recognize most people will NOT be interested...
CNC-day1: Sunday, 26th September - Marion
44.6miles
4:05 moving time
10.9 moving average
4:21 overall time
10.2 overall average
CNC-day2: Monday, 27th September - Hickory
64.7 miles
6:21 moving time
10.2 moving average
7:30 overall time
8.6 overall average
4,153 feet total ascent
1,539 max elevation
CNC-day3: Tuesday 28th September
47.4 miles
4:12 moving time
11.3 moving average
4:46 overall time
9.9 overall average
2,123 feet total ascent
1,211 max elevation
CNC10-day4: Wednesday 29th September - Albemarle
64.3 miles
5:32 moving time
11.6 moving average
6:24 overall time
10.0 overall average
3,146 total ascent
942 max elevation
CNC10-day5: Thursday 30 September 2010 - Laurinburg
83.8 miles
6:55 moving time
12.1 moving average
9:15 overall time
9.0 overall average
3,081 total ascent
909 max elevation
20 mph plus draft for last 8 miles
CNC10- day6: Friday - 1 October - Whiteville
74.2 miles
5:28 moving time
13.6 moving average
6:05 overall time
11.6 overall average
1,053 total ascent
230 max elevation
CNC10- day7: Saturday - 2 October - Ocean Isle Beach, NC
53.2 miles
4:05 moving time
13.00 moving average
4:36 overall time
10.7 overall average
720 total ascent
109 max elevation
some tailwind from NE
slow slow slow I had hoped to finish before noon and I did but I felt Really Slow
BUT overall we BOTH finished and we feel GOOD about that!!!
======================================================
Mileage summary ( 431.5 total ):
Day 1 = 44.6 Sunday
Day 2 = 64.7 Monday
Day 3 = 47.4 Tuesday
Day 4 = 64.3 Wednesday
Day 5 = 83.8 Thursday
Day 6 = 74.2 Friday
Day 7 = 53.2 Saturday
AND now that we are "home" in Stuart, Florida (after a night with a family-member in Black_Mountain (near Asheville_/_Biltmore_Estate), and a 700 plus mile drive home to Stuart on Monday, 4th October) we managed to:
a.) Ms._May 'managed' a significant laundry-episode - where she did COUNTLESS loads
b.) we both spent some time in the yard - 'tidying-up' - (after all the rain while we were gone) and put-out about 10 trash-cans for the trash guy tomorrow
c.) Mr._Bill 'attempted' to clean-up Ms._May's bicycle and his tricycle - and, well, maybe they aren't 'spic-and-span' like when new but they are cleaner than they were when we brought them home
d.) cat-petting and cat-hugging and cat-feeding-and etc. etc. etc. - the_Cat_ seemed to think we'd abandoned her - and she needed a LOT of attention.
e.) Mr._Bill made a run to the grocery store BEFORE breakfast and Ms._May made another run by the grocery store after Tai Chi and we had EXCELLENT Lunch and Dinner - which were NOT like the food we had on the cycling trip
f.) update various blogs and web-pages and othe such computer-things
g.) wade through the accumulated postal mail - most of which was, of course JUNK (not JUNQUE (which is GOOD Junk))...
h.) wash the mini-van which was DIRTY after a couple thousand miles on the road and a whole bunch of dirty laundry and dirty cycles
i.) etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. - all those other things one has to do when one returns home (like sleep in one's own bed and take a shower in one's own shower...
last updated: 19:52 p.m. on Tuesday, 05 October, 2010: revID: 1a on Macintosh Mack Book Air
Some Pictures and text:----
Before we actually got started cycling, we visited a place called the "Grovewood Gallery" - and it was pretty spectacular. LOTS of interesting & fun things to look at (and A LOT of opportunities to spend your cold-hard-cash if you happened to have a lot of that to spend)... We didn't spend anything but time there, but we had lunch 'next-door' at a small cafe - where the food was extra-good... Here's a small - short movie(1.1 megs) of some of the 'dynamic' (wind) sculputres planted outside the gallery...
This was our daily route (track logs in different colors) and - yeah - I missed one day - so fire me, huh?!?! - actually the above graphic-overlay on top of a Google Earth image was done with 'just one click' of the software on the Apple Mac Book Air. - the 'missing' day above (Tuesday, the third day) is in another file that I'm 'twiddling' on the Windows XP PC (yeah - YUCH!) - and/or twiddling on another Macintosh - I'll eventually add-back-in that missing-day but twiddling the file will take 'some time'. Do NOT hold your breath waiting for this.
We started out (first day's ride (Sunday, 26th September)) at the "Biltmore Estate" - in Asheville, North Carolina - where Mr. Vanderbilt BUILT a HUGE Mansion, grounds, gardens, etc. etc. etc... - Since we cyclists are typically hard-pressed for both money and sleeping arrangements, we spent the night before the start in a horse-stall at the "Barn" on the Biltmore Estate...
We managed to slide-through the beauties of the Western North Carolina area during Sunday, Monday, Tuesday (September 26-28) in a considerable amount of RAIN... we won't talk a lot about the RAIN, except to say that it was WET (which is, of course, what rain is supposed to be. It was NOT cold (at least not in-tolerably so) - but it was definitely wet. One might think that 'rain-gear' (pants / jacket) was the order of the day but - by and large one is as wet inside the rain-gear (sweat and leaks and all) as one is outside the rain-gear so the bottom-line is that rain gear ain't worth much in these conditions...
BUT will briefly say that there was a 5 mile plus long, no cars, VERY twisty-turny downhill (a part of the "Old US-70" within the Pisgah National Forest (a bit West of "Old Fort, NC")) on Sunday (26th) that Mr._Bill went down approaching the speed of light, in the RAIN!
This was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity so he took it to heart. There was NO VIEW on this route as the trees by the road were tall, un-trimmed, and there was a LOT of FOG, and unless one wanted to end up in those trees, one was paying considerably more attention to steering and braking the trike than to the view that was not there...
The wet-slick-road (recently paved), and the slippery wet-leaves and the no-cars made this a no-holds-barred down-hill for speed freaks like yours truly. The stability of the trike (versus the uprights/two-wheelers) and the lower CG, and three (much-bigger) tire-patches on the road made this for a thrill like none other. The fact that I was running 'slicks' on the front or my trike made this even more challenging in the pouring rain. This downhill was worth the whole week and the price of admission, and I'd definitely do it again if I had the chance.
An opportunity exists to go back to this cycling-only route, within the National Forest, so we're researching what that might take to do...
We don't have a whole lot of pictures for the first few days - the RAIN kept the iPhone in it's little 'house'. I was considerably worried that if I took it out to take a picture - it would get wet and not work - so that's the short-story about lack of pictures for the first few days...
Late Tuesday the sun came out and we camped in our tent in "Mooresville" - and it was good to dry things out - but then on Wednesday morning, again, it RAINED... But leaving that morning in the rain I met one other guy on a "Catrike Speed", he's from Seminole,_Florida, and quite an accomplished rider...
We've had a number of questions about this "Indoor Camping" scene. - what's it like - well: This is a 'typical' indoor camping scene - this one happens to be (we think) in the Hickory YMCA gym. Indoor Camping (as implemented by the people that organize this ride) is typically an indoor stadium or a gym - where - in essence one 'camps' (with no stove or tent, etc.) like one is having a 'big slumber party'... - It's meant for those people without a tent (or in our case with a tent which we don't like very much and don't 'TRUST" in wet-weather.
NOW - here's the thing, though... - There are 'cherished' or 'treasured' spots in any indoor-camping-facility. One has to (like everything else in life) make some trade-offs. - One has to trade-off who are the talktive types, who are the snoring types, etc etc. etc. - how much traffic is going to go by your 'spot' and how close to a door and/or a 'dead-zone' (traffic-wise)....
FOR THIS Set of 'reasons' - there are obvious choices for 'prime-real-estate' and un-obvious choices, also. PLUS - someone who 'looks official' with the school or the YMCA might come along and tell you this or that - and you might find later that they didn't quite know what they were talking about - so EVERYTHING is a 'guess'.
PLUS - the organizers do not "Call" this thing a 'Race', they call it a 'Ride'.... - HOWEVER, it is ULTIMATELY a RACE to get a good indoor camping spot (especially if it's RAINING out and it looks like it might RAIN some more 'tonite'....
LATER in this web-page - a couple of pictures will show that (Thursday, I think) Mr._Bill managed to ride HARD and LONG enough to get to the Indoor Camping spot early enough to get a 'treasured' wall-space!...
This is a picture of me that Ms._May took. I'm in front of some soy-bean-fields which looked quite nice in reality. Somehow though the iPhone's camera is quite good - sometimes it is also a failure at capturing things we'd really like to show you...
This was a warm and toasty coffee shop in some town (we think Albemrale, but not certain. Ms._May and I both found wi-fi for our iPhone(s) - her's is not 'enabled' yet for 3G / GSM phone-calls but it does pretty much else. - So we updated blogs, had some coffee (Ms._May had tea), and generally hung-around a while til we THOUGHT the rain had quit but the bottom-line was it NEVER QUIT that evening - glad we were staying INDOORS, instead of in our tent...
Thursday and Friday and Saturday the weather was much much better. Thursday was my 'personal best' day with over 80 miles and a considerably higher average speed (with almost 7 hours pedalling - a bit over 9 hours elapsed).
At some point - and I can't remember where / when I see this 'reservoir' on the GPS screen. (One can ALWAYS tell a reservoir from a lake because a reservoir always has a straight-line in it (where ther damn is)... - So - I see this reservoir, and I see the 'course-line' heading to the reservoir - and realize: What goes DOWN (the trail to the reservoir) MUST come back UP (that means the trail RISES (we have to CLIMB) - UGH UGH UGH
but this is a view from the bridge across the reservoir - - the side coming down was to the right - the side (I had YET to go up) was to the left... ... ...
Wall Space - a testament to someone Riding FAST and HARD to get to the indoor camping spot EARLY (at least earlier than some others)
This is the evening (we think we remember) it was the Friday evening (after a 60 plus mile pedalling day) where I managed to get to Whiteville (High School) early enough to get a treasured "Wall-Space" - in the indoor camping arena (Whiteville High School's gymnasium).
After we finished (the whole ride (on Saturday, 2 October)) - before noon(which was a significant accomplishment)) at Ocean Isle Beach, we realized we needed something for breakfast (at about 06:30 a.m.) on Sunday morning before getting on the tour-bus for the ride back to Asheville (about 7-8 hours predicted). So we walked almost two miles to the local (NEW) grocery store. We bought some breakfasting things and got some plastic silverware and such and were ready to walk back to the 'Island' - but we were not "THRILLED" by the prospect of a significant "hike" back to our hotel as we had brough 'cycling' shoes not 'hiking' shoes (amongst other problems (like TIRED BODIES))... - SO - we thought, lets see if we can beg someone to take us back to the Hotel...
We managed to find these REALLY NICE PEOPLE with a 'street-legal' golf-cart to give us a ride back to the Island... Kind of hard to see the guy who was steering / driving the golf-cart but he owns a business which buys the 'generic' golf-carts then turns them into street-legal golf-carts by adding things like brake, turn, head lights, a more powerful motor and other such things. ANYWAY _ they were very very nice to give us a ride back to our hotel.
for those with a nose for numbers, here's a 'short-summary' of the statistics for the ride from Mr._Bill's viewpoint. Note some-days my numbers might agree and/or dis-agree with some other numbers because I got lost (or didn't) - or (the organizers made us 'detour' one day because a road was flooded-out because of all the RAIN!... - anyway - numbers for your perusal if you're interested (and yeah - I recognize most people will NOT be interested...
CNC-day1: Sunday, 26th September - Marion
44.6miles
4:05 moving time
10.9 moving average
4:21 overall time
10.2 overall average
CNC-day2: Monday, 27th September - Hickory
64.7 miles
6:21 moving time
10.2 moving average
7:30 overall time
8.6 overall average
4,153 feet total ascent
1,539 max elevation
CNC-day3: Tuesday 28th September
47.4 miles
4:12 moving time
11.3 moving average
4:46 overall time
9.9 overall average
2,123 feet total ascent
1,211 max elevation
CNC10-day4: Wednesday 29th September - Albemarle
64.3 miles
5:32 moving time
11.6 moving average
6:24 overall time
10.0 overall average
3,146 total ascent
942 max elevation
CNC10-day5: Thursday 30 September 2010 - Laurinburg
83.8 miles
6:55 moving time
12.1 moving average
9:15 overall time
9.0 overall average
3,081 total ascent
909 max elevation
20 mph plus draft for last 8 miles
CNC10- day6: Friday - 1 October - Whiteville
74.2 miles
5:28 moving time
13.6 moving average
6:05 overall time
11.6 overall average
1,053 total ascent
230 max elevation
CNC10- day7: Saturday - 2 October - Ocean Isle Beach, NC
53.2 miles
4:05 moving time
13.00 moving average
4:36 overall time
10.7 overall average
720 total ascent
109 max elevation
some tailwind from NE
slow slow slow I had hoped to finish before noon and I did but I felt Really Slow
BUT overall we BOTH finished and we feel GOOD about that!!!
======================================================
Mileage summary ( 431.5 total ):
Day 1 = 44.6 Sunday
Day 2 = 64.7 Monday
Day 3 = 47.4 Tuesday
Day 4 = 64.3 Wednesday
Day 5 = 83.8 Thursday
Day 6 = 74.2 Friday
Day 7 = 53.2 Saturday
AND now that we are "home" in Stuart, Florida (after a night with a family-member in Black_Mountain (near Asheville_/_Biltmore_Estate), and a 700 plus mile drive home to Stuart on Monday, 4th October) we managed to:
a.) Ms._May 'managed' a significant laundry-episode - where she did COUNTLESS loads
b.) we both spent some time in the yard - 'tidying-up' - (after all the rain while we were gone) and put-out about 10 trash-cans for the trash guy tomorrow
c.) Mr._Bill 'attempted' to clean-up Ms._May's bicycle and his tricycle - and, well, maybe they aren't 'spic-and-span' like when new but they are cleaner than they were when we brought them home
d.) cat-petting and cat-hugging and cat-feeding-and etc. etc. etc. - the_Cat_ seemed to think we'd abandoned her - and she needed a LOT of attention.
e.) Mr._Bill made a run to the grocery store BEFORE breakfast and Ms._May made another run by the grocery store after Tai Chi and we had EXCELLENT Lunch and Dinner - which were NOT like the food we had on the cycling trip
f.) update various blogs and web-pages and othe such computer-things
g.) wade through the accumulated postal mail - most of which was, of course JUNK (not JUNQUE (which is GOOD Junk))...
h.) wash the mini-van which was DIRTY after a couple thousand miles on the road and a whole bunch of dirty laundry and dirty cycles
i.) etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. - all those other things one has to do when one returns home (like sleep in one's own bed and take a shower in one's own shower...
last updated: 19:52 p.m. on Tuesday, 05 October, 2010: revID: 1a on Macintosh Mack Book Air