MeMe's Bike has a NAME!!

Today I completed the "Ride from Hell Route" once more. Actually, I added some mileage, just to see if I could. The route was from one small town 'Atkins' to a smaller town 'Newhall'.
Toward the end of this ride I came up with a name for Meme's Bike.

"Hail Yin" - I was going to name her "Hell - N", but since my 98 year old Grandmother's name is Helen, I figured she wouldn't approve. The bike has a last name too, it's Back. So, Hail Yin Back, which is pretty much where she's taking me!

I'm getting smarter!! Or so I'd thought! I would complete the 'harder' part of the route first. Beginning in Atkins and heading West to Newhall. I needed a new 'starting' point. So I loaded up the bike (something kind of wrong about 'driving' a bike somewhere to ride it) and headed to 'town'. I found a newer walking trial near a gas station that has some 'dirt' parking, so this looked as good a spot as any to leave the van.

I check the time, and head off. Oh yes, this is MUCH better without all that blasted wind!! Four way stop, I know I 'should' stop, I know I'm 'suppose' to stop, but I keep going. Hey, who's pedaling here?

Meme's bike has 24 speeds, yep, count them! 24!!! WOW!! I think I only have 4, stationary, slow, med and fast. So, part of this venture is to become more familiar with the gears and what's comfortable from a pedaling stand point. I like to pedal in comfort. You know those people that 'hill climb' (stand up on their bikes up hill to get to the top faster?), that will NOT be me!! I'll just drop down a dozen gears and get there in when I get there.

There are 3 rings on the bike and the are controlled by the left gear shift on the handle bar. The largest ring is the 'hardest' to pedal the the smallest ring is the 'easiest' (this also does NOT get you very far very fast). My preference is to hang out in the 'middle' ring, gears 9-16. 13 probably being my favorite. Yes, I now know more about bike gears then I ever really wanted to!!! Next trip I'll need to shift into the upper gears down hill to get more speed. Next time.....

So, I'm pedaling away and 'kind of' enjoying myself. I notice the country side, not new the amount of traffic! So it's nice. I'm getting a little thirsty, so I brought along the little aqua belt my sister gave me for running. It has my keys and a big 6 ounces of water! Use it sparingly! Doesn't it figure when I cleaned all my plastics out several weeks ago that a BUNCH of water bottles went into the trash! Wait....maybe they are still in the recycle bins in the chicken coop....I'll have to go check.

I'm come across a big farm house that I didn't notice the last time, it has a LOT of windows! We're getting new windows upstairs, so of course I counted the East and South sides on the way by and made a mental note to catch the East side on the way back. 15, for those of you that are interested. I didn't check out the North side.

I rode past Julie's house, she's on the Eastern edge of Newhall, up past the park and ran two more stop signs. I decided to take the black top out of Newhall as far as it would go, which was another mile or so. Turned around and ........ CARP!!! WIND!! You have so GOT to be kidding me!! I did everything right!! Expect ask the weather stopper! UGH!!! The only good news it that it was about a 1/3 of what it was.

The ride back wasn't nearly as easy as I remembered on Saturday. I suppose it was because we had a strong tail wind. I could see the Atkins water tower in the distance and the gas station sign came into view (the walking trial was right next door). My ride was coming to an end!

As I entered Atkins, I came upon this sign. It made me laugh.
I think this must be the number of streets ahead. I was at the 4th exit. G

Bike ride over!! Legs are RUBBER!! Overall I felt pretty good. Of course I had to drive the route to see how far the ride was. It totaled 12.8 miles in about one hour. UGH!! The bike ride in the race is 15.5 and I was hoping to do that in one hour. Guess I'll need to pick it up a notch.

I decided to check out the racing results from last year to see what times people were putting in for the bike ride. Boy, was that a mistake!! I found one time of 62 minutes, um, okay. Um, it belonged to a 71 year old women!! OMG!!! LOL! That's okay, her swim took 18 minutes and I'm thinking I can do it in 10. G I'll be out of the water and on the bike before she gets out of the water....of course, she can always lap me in the bike ride.

Julie asked the other day if I wanted to drive out to Palo to see what the bike ride route looked like. NO!!!! I told her I wanted it to be a surprise! In fact, I think I'll close my eyes as Bill drives there as I would really rather NOT know. I just keep telling myself that I'm lucky this race is in Iowa, because everyone knows that Iowa is FLAT!!!!