Two Wheel Blogs

Riding.

A lot.

I've been on vacation since Friday 7.2. I rode once almost every day. Some days, I rode twice. (I did not ride on Thursday 7.8 or today.) In eight days of riding, I covered 316 miles. The longest was a 53-miler on the Madison County; the shortest, a pair of 10-milers. In addition to the riding, I've also been running every other day. My legs are pretty much exhausted, but pleasantly so. And, weather permitting, I intend to do the Mueller Road ride tomorrow night.

Fri 7.2 ~ Snake Road

I had three hours to ride this morning. I had to be home to be on a conference call at 1:00 p.m. (While I'm on vacation, I can carve out an hour of time to do a conference call.) So far this summer, I've re-ridden routes I rode all last summer. The Belk Park Loop, the Marine Loop, the Mueller Road and Chesterfield Valley group rides -- I've been working the circuit, hitting all the old haunts. But I had not ridden north to Snake Road yet. So I set out to do that.

A wind out of the north kept my pace in the low teens as I headed up Moreland to Moro Road. I hit Snake Road 1:06 into the ride. When I first discovered Snake Road last year, it was a welcome change from my usual routes. Though it's not very long, it twists and turns its whole length, and it has a couple of hills that, for Madison County, are rare. It was not in great shape last year. Since then, it's condition has deteriorated. Much of it was covered with loose gravel -- especially key section where you want to carry speed through a curve or climb. Not wanting to wipe out, I took it easy as I rode, all the while lamenting what had become of my road.

As I was doing a long, slow climb, three dogs came running out from a nearby farmhouse, barking at me as I trudged up the hill. Two of them appeared content just to bark at ne, but the third seemed intent on doing more. Fortunately, a pickup truck came up the hill behind me and, when it did, the dogs went back to there yard. As the driver passed, I nodded my appreciation to him. He acknowledged my gratitude for the rescue with "I was going to run them over."

I reached the end of Snake Road without further incident, then turned around and headed back to Old Moro. When I got there, I checked the time: 1:27. I had ridden an hour to get there, just so I could do a 21-minute ride. As I headed back for home, mindful of the time, I decided to cut over to Belk Park. I was right there, so it seemed silly just to ride past it. With a lot of help from the wind, I rode fast (for me) on one stretch. After all the slow riding I've been doing this week, it felt good to open it up and ride in the low 20s for a change -- even if the wind was responsible for a lot of the mph.

I finished the ride in 2:48, having covered 45 miles in that time. And I had timed it just right, as I got home just in time to get out of my kit and get on the phone for the conference call.

Sat 7.10 ~ KDHX to Millstadt

Today's ride took some coordination.

I play in a band, The Lodge Brothers. We don't gig often, but it just so happened that today we had two gigs: the first at 1:00 in Granite City; the other, in Millstadt at 7:30 p.m. My radio show runs until 1:00 p.m., so there was no way I could make the first gig in time.

Two members of the band, John and Wayne, would be carpooling from Alton. A third, Rich, would be coming up from Columbia; it's south of Granite City, but just to the west of Millstadt. But Rich's son needed to use his car. So I proposed to Rich that I drive down to Columbia, then he drive me across the river to St. Louis, where I would bike to KDHX to do my show, then bike to Millstadt. This would allow him to drive my car up to Granite City to play the gig with John and Wayne, then drive it down to Millstadt.

So that's what we did. Rich dropped me at Jefferson Barracks around 9:00 a.m. or so, and I rode up Broadway until I reached Arsenal, then followed that to Grand and to KDHX. After my show, I followed the Ride St. Louis lanes downtown, then hopped on the Riverfront Trail and headed for the McKinley Bridge. Yes, it would have been quicker to cross the Eads Bridge and ride through East St. Louis on my way to Millstadt. But I had plenty of time, so I was not interested in the shortest route.

I had checked out a 50-mile route I could have ridden, but in the interest of hooking up with my fellow Lodge Brothers in time to get a bite to eat before the gig, I settled for a 38-mile route. I hooked up with the Schoolhouse Trail extension and took it past Horseshoe Lake, then followed it to IL 157, the Bluff Road. I followed that south to the intersection with 163, Millstadt Road. I climbed up the bluffs and headed for Millstadt, only seven miles away.

The sight of the Millstadt water tower told me I was nearing the edge of town. No sooner had I realized how close I was to my destination than a white van honked at me as it passed, followed closely by my car. Yes, after almost two and a half hours of riding, I was reaching Millstadt at exactly the same time my bandmates were. I caught up with Rich at a filling station, racked my bike, and rode with him to the park where we would be playing. After I got cleaned up, we went to get a bite to eat, then returned to the park to play the gig. On the whole, it was a pretty good day.