That was a Hoot!

Andrew, one of the premier try athletes, or is that tri?

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Jamie, aka Group Brawler, and also the anti style queen.  He puts in an ernest effort for nothing to match, deliberately choosing garish yellow handle bar tape to clash.

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Considering radar and the forecast, there was a decent turnout for the Spring Hoot, a 50, 60, 80 or 100 mile route of fun and hills. We had to apply plenty of peer pressure to get Dennis to come but he did with the words, "I know we are going to get wet".  Our group consisted of the aforementioned weather bug, Steve O, Tuna, Ryan R, Group Brawler, Andrew, Kevin H.,Jeff S, and Mark C.  One problem, Jeff discovered his hard slide on Thursday's ride had removed rubber and the casing was showing on his rear tire.  After canvassing the parking lot, we found no extra tires so Mark C came up with the idea that we would ride to his house, make a tire change and jump back on the route.  Because Dennis, Group Brawler and I were only chancing the 60 mile route, we stayed on course while the others exited right, soon after the ride started.  

Having to receive a couple of calls eventually put me out of our group that had swelled to 4 with the arrival of Dan.  I rode into Amanda with 25 miles and just ahead of a wall of showers.  To the north, the skies were very dark and no doubt hammering the start of our ride, preventing an escape directly back to the parking lot.  Jamie had been nice to wait for me in Amanda but I urged him to continue without me as I contemplated what to do. So..... I vegged out at the gas station waiting for Mark C's group to come in and talking to a variety of people as they came and went.  Partially through my second Monster (Lo-Cal) Mark and friends arrived, having spent some time under a porch roof waiting out a shower.  By now, 45 minutes of lounging had taken their toll on my desire to ride coupled with a forecast from Ron that the next significant group of showers would arrive out of Indy by 12:30.  Flyin Tuna had organized an escape route out Amanda-Clearport Rd/Revenge/Stoney Hill and back to the start for about 50 miles.  Just past the turn onto Hopewell Church Road at the top of a climb on Amanda-Clearport Road, it began to pour but thankfully, the church there had a nice porch where we stayed dry and where a map check gave me guidance for the directess route out of this.  I headed north on Hopewell Church and ended the ride with 46 miles and 2600' of climbing.   

Later that day, I received a call from Mark C and the conversation went like this: MC: "How many miles did you guys get in." MW: "Well, we...." MC (cutting me off mid sentence): "Let me tell you about our ride." MW: "Ah, ok." MC: "Jeff S and I rode 110 miles and only got rained on two times." MW: "Only two times? Who else rode the route?" MC: "No one else could hang with us, except Andrew but I could tell he was struggling and it was no surprise when we stopped to eat in Bremen, Andrew kept going to avoid the humiliation of being dropped by me." MW: "Your new found cycling power is exceeded only by your lack of humility." MC: "Also, Jeff S dropped like a rock on all the climbs behind me." MW: "Gosh." MC: "Don't forget to put this in the blog."  MW:  "OK". MC: "Well, got to go. Talk to you later."  

Had wrangled an invite from the Kendaites to ride with them on Sunday but was deterred by the 20mph west winds and spent most of the day at a graduation party playing volleyball, corn hole and baseball.  Maybe the weather will cooperate next week.

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