Walnuts & CFC

10/2/2011

Friday night. Sitting in front of weather radar...not looking good with a green blog crossing into Ohio bearing down on central Ohio so I make the decision to sleep in on Saturday and leave those who showed up in Canal for our CFC alternative ride, in the lurch. Don't know if anyone rode. Later, thousands of walnuts laying around in the yard and need picked up.

Here, is maybe the greatest invention since the blender...a walnut picker upper.

Roll the thing around the ground, the tines open up, walnuts gallop into the corral and are caught. I worked diligently covering several areas under walnut trees while dodging the plunging missiles from the trees. Got hit once on the side but better then getting conked in the head. After packing several containers I head to one of 10 walnut processing centers in the state of Ohio, this one only 4 miles away. This year's payment is $0.11 per pound of walnuts, up from $0.10 last year. Dump walnuts into a weird looking machine that takes the husk off, leaving the walnut. I end up with a little over 100 pounds and walk away with $11.21. Good pay day.

OK, I'm gathering information from CFC participants and may have more later but if you want to post your comment about your personal experience, others will enjoy it for sure. Probably you most want to know the outcome of the Jon Sada vs Rick Miller challenge ride. They began in Sugar Grove as planned and began on the route. Coming out of New Lexington, rain picked up and became a fairly miserable ride. Rick packed it in around Mconnellsville where Todd Lee was seen standing naked in a Laundromat watching his cycling gear tumble dry. John G and Sada hung together but I hear they took a short cut so.....not sure a winner can really be declared.

Others either did not show or abandoned during the ride. I checked radar at around 1:00 and it appeared all the rain was east of Lancaster, all the way to Marietta. With the cool temp, wind and rain, I really felt for you guys and was very glad I decided not to participate. Flyin Tuna completed the ride, to her credit but was so tired, called hubby Rod to come and get her. I heard others were scrambling to get out but don't think there was enough transportation to get everyone out who wanted out so then they had to endure the Sunday head winds.

4 Comments

Caboose

10/3/2011 12:39:01 am

We had a good ride on Sunday and were happy to have missed Saturday's rain. Friday, Frans and I decided to take the Rossis up on their offer to drive us and Pastor Mark down to Marietta to ride on Sunday. We met up with Oxley, Andrew, Jeff S. (whose wife drove him down as well) and others for dinner at Shoney's. Sunday did have headwinds and only got up to 52, but the sun was mostly present during the day and it was not too bad. For those that rode Saturday, I truly feel they earned their CFC shirt! The volunteers were great, Dave Buzzee was there with his wife and there was soup and baked potatoes at the lunch stop.

kenda janet

10/3/2011 02:06:44 am

Kenda Paul representing the Kendaites successfully rode all (no short cutting let it be noted) of CFC, both days. Said it was a great ride, only he missed his riding partner (me), who bagged it given the forecast. Meanwhile, desparate to ride, I ran down to Canal on Saturday morning (only someone left us in the lurch) and ended up abandoning before even starting since it was so miserable and i felt crummy leaving jeremy to ride solo...

Jeremy

10/3/2011 07:11:28 am

Its all good. Rode down to Lancaster stopped at Four Reasons for a break. Contemplated going further until it began raining again. However I did ride both sides of Slough, Brandt, Stringtown. Got in 42 miles. Sorry Janet I didn't take you up on your offer of 35ish since thats about where I ended up at. Nevertheless it probably won't be much longer and we'll jump at the chance to ride in weather like Saturdays was.

David

10/4/2011 12:54:41 pm

This was my first CFC and I wasn't going to miss it for some stupid weather. I started out with Steve, Andrew, Cindy, Mark V, and John S and maybe a couple others whose names I can't remember, but rode most of the way to lunch with John. My feet were really wet by then. Other than shivering after every food stop, I felt strong the whole day, probably thanks to the stout tail wind. The hardest part was having to sit and roll slow up the steepest hills to keep my rear wheel from slipping on the wet pavement. The most challenging hill was at mile 99-100 with about 300 feet of gain in a little over a mile. In Marietta, Steve had already checked into our room and procured some rags for us to clean off our bikes. We also went through half a phone book stuffing pages into shoes, gloves, and anything else we wanted to use the next day. My favorite part on Sunday was kicking ass up the hill out of Malta (cheers for dry roads!) and cruising up and down the rollers on Hwy 78 for 20 miles. John S caught up with me before the last food stop and we finished the ride together, just like we started on Saturday. Overall, the whole year from TOSRV to CFC was tremendously rewarding as I pursued my mid-life quest to transform from couch potato to athlete. I want to thank all of you who encouraged me through my first full season of cycling, either verbally or by simply being faster than me and giving me something to work towards.

Walnuts & CFC

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