I've Seen Fire and I've Seen Rain

The Millersport Corn Festival ride brought out the usual suspects including Frans, who seems to be quite the ladies man judging by this scene.  I wanted to catch the Buckeyes so invested in only the 35 mile route, shoving off with Jeff S, Jimmy, John W and Flyin Tuna, at 9:00am.  A much larger group had departed at 8:00 and considering the temp, a good idea.  I was back at my car before 11:00 and it was already in the high 80's and I spent a split second feeling sorry for those on the longer route.

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So, having not put in much for Saturday's ride I showed at John Marten's Granville ride at 8:30am, which was an 80 mile route through Mt Vernon, Gambier, Howard, Millwood, Bladensburg, Newark & in.  Good group that split early with me hooking up with Marty, Dave C, Jon Sada, Tym Tyler, Mountain Bike Bob and Steve.  We kept a pace slightly lower than the Thursday New Albany ride out the flat to rolling route along Burg, Dry Creek, Louden, etc.. all the way to 36 where Marty busted out a strong pull into Mt. Vernon, at mile 30.  The sustained effort gassed me and when we turned onto a bike path to take us to Howard, I dropped out and cruised the 8 miles to Howard, rejoining the group in front of a bank of pop machines.  

Unfortunately, the machines would not accept a $20 or a $5 so I was out of luck, but our next stop was at Millwood, only a few miles down the road.  We jumped on to Millwood Road but upon reaching 62, rather than turn left into Millwood we went straight onto Hazel Dell , which turned south and soon hit a ramp, then another ramp then a very steepish ramp then I began spewing hydraulic fluid and dropped back, partly because I saw there were more ramps ahead too.  Upon reaching the top of the next ramp I saw Jon and Bob had dropped back too but too far ahead to bridge.  Anyway, this stretch of road, once the ramps are behind is a great ride on good roads all the way in to Bladensburg.  There I found Jon and Bob but the others had kept going.  Jon and Bob left a few minutes ahead of me and in the ensuing minutes prior to my departure, I began hearing thunder and the sky was looking ominous to the northeast.  

I headed south on Henpeck and it began pouring so I sought shelter under a tree.  A couple of women on a front porch invited me up so I spent a few minutes there until the rain paused and I took off.  Shortly after crossing 586 it began pouring again and very intensely so.  Found a centuries old maple tree that kept the rain off for awhile but eventually the tree lost its covering effect and spent the time listening to the sound of thunder shift slowly from the east to the west while a cold wind began blowing.  A call home confirmed it was raining there too so I thought, "Great, I'm going to follow this all the way to Granville" so.....I called in the rescue force and pleaded with my wife to come and get me. While I waited, the rain slackened so I headed out again where upon reaching Hickman, the pavement was dry and in fact, I could have ridden the balance of the route rain free.  Oh well, the rescue team showed up at Hickman and I packed it in with only 60 miles.

Regarding Tuesday's Canal ride, my arch nemesis, Ryan Roe, has sent me a good ride report and I will post with images later today.

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