Sunday Granville Ride Report & Corn Futures

Marty strides through the parking lot behind River Road Coffee House, having made the requisite purchase for the privilege of using the parking lot, although Marty and Jon rode their bikes from New Albany.  Since I don't drink coffee and find the service to be excruciatingly slow, I rarely go in there so chalked up Marty's purchase to my account.

New comer to the Sunday Granville ride, Jon Morgan, enjoying a pre-ride snack with ride organizer John Martin to his right.  19 of us participated including Marty Sedluk, Tym & Lisa Tyler, John Miller, Farmer Mike, Lon Herman, John & Kim Sada with son Anthony, Alexi (spl?) and various tri-types. 

Although we were all going to Bladensburg, some were going to Hanover via the bike path while Marty led a group of 7 on a hillier alternative, roughly paralleling the bike path.  This time of the year, the roads are always showing the wear from a long winter but seems the roads are especially bad this year.  One in particular, Opossum Hollow off Martinsburg, is really more like an ancient game trail.  Marty commented about the great views along this road and all I could say was, "How can you know I can't risk taking my eyes off the road long enough to see."

We reached Hanover, hooked up with the bike pathers and headed north on Licking Valley Road.  Meantime, I discovered a guy, Paul Swisher, I used to ride with frequently about 6 years ago but who quit cycling was riding with the bike path group so I hung back to get updated with him.  Doing so, I stayed on the direct route to Jug Run and in to Bladensburg while Marty led his group on a circuitous route that hit all the hills.  Rats, hated to miss that....yeah right. 

I sat next to Farmer Mike, who shared chips, cheese and turkey with me.  What a guy.  The bigger news though is Mike's revelation that they are "putting in corn" on the vast swath of land he owns.  Knowledge of this, once it becomes public, will send corn futures in to a bear market so I took a big position this morning.  It's good to know powerful people in high places. Well, we shoved off and headed south on Henpeck, reached Hickman and then southeast back to Hanover.  I was looking to add some miles and over time, I have learned the likelihood that I will add miles to a route is inversely proportional to the distance I am at the time from the end of the route...I think that makes sense.  Anyway, the closer I get to the end, the less likely I will add miles.  There, that makes sense.  So, I left the group,  took the hilly route back to Granville, added a few miles and finished with 84 miles and 5200' of climbing.