Chapter 5 - June 1st, 2008- Otis With Newbies

OTIS!!!! The name must have some sort of meaning as in Mecca, OTIS!!! Does it mean anything to you? It doesn't me, but for some reason the ride to Otis attracted 18 people. The most we have ever had on one of these Duke Rides. There were people I've never met before. While I haven't met the world, I like to think that I met a lot of BCA Members, but not in this group. Willy brought a buddy from California, we will call him the California Guy. Bill Hart, showed up, Pat, Mary Lou, Karen Mills with her burn (see a pic in Notes section), Nicky and Jim Creer, Paula P., my buddy Deb Mc-I., Shaun, Alissa (yes Alissa, wow, the ride must be important)Duke, John C., Steve ( got me what his last name is, I can't write that fast, but good rider) Dudly and Deb Wetherall. If I missed anybody, I'm sorry, it was hard enough last weekend trying to count to 14, but 18 really screwed me up.

I was totally impressed with number of people, but what worried me is that 80% of them were strong riders. I figured that I would be riding by myself most of the time. Most said that this is longest ride for them this year. Like Deb Wetherall, telling me that she had only done 35 miles max this year. Crips, she was in front for the whole 60 flying. And she expected me to feel badly for her. Not going to happen, no sympathy here Deb. I would give alot to ride half as well as you do. By complaining about distance I think that they all expected me to feel sorry for them, fat chance, they were all very skinny and had very nice bikes, that equals, Bryan in the rear.

A lot happened before we took off. You will notice in the picture that Duke is setting fashion trend by biking in bluejeans (what me worry! I don't care about no stinkinig blisters in my croch.) I cringe when I think of Duke biking 60+ miles in Denims.
You talk about hamburger, man evne the thought of the seam rubbing hurts. We finally talked him into borrowing some pants from Willy. So I drove Willy and Duke to Willy's house to get some shorts, mission accomplished, as you can see from the after picture. If you look closly you will see that Willy didn't give Duke the best pair he had, the shorts are tatered, and worn. Good move Willy, you don't want Duke to wreck new ones.

I mentioned that I drove to Willy's. I got all kinds of grief about having my car at Wahconah that from Shaun, can you believe he called me a Girly Biker? (Ladies don't you think that is a bit of Chauvanism?) See he knows that I Live 2 miles from Wahconah and I drove. Well it's like this, I have all my clothes in the back of my mini hummer. And the weather was very changable, so I took my wardrobe to the start of the ride. It seemed logical to me, besides who would have driven to Willy's if I didn't have my car. Shaun was just trying to make a point that he and Alissa pedaled up 7.2 miles to the start and I drove 2 miles. Made sense to me to drive. Besides I'm older and the gas will last until I kick off so what do I care. Besides it only cost me $0.13 cents. I get 26 mph, 2 miles, = .13 cents. I think that I can afford that.

We finally took off once Duke got situated with very nice fitting bike shorts (see above,) a little worn, but nice fitting. The start was short lived, we didn't make it very far, 2.3 miles, before we had our first rest stop because Paula got a flat. You know Paula's tire looked like Swiss cheese, she has so many holes in it. There was a rip from a previous ride and this hole and bare spots, I found out that she carries Duct tape in her pack to patch the tire. Only a mtn biker would do that. At any rate the stop wasn't too long because while I supervised Shaun changed it . I'm good at supervising, proof is that Shaun got the tire done quickly in about 10 minutes. Good job Shaun. Don't worry bud, i won't take any credit.

I should note that I took my GPS on this ride . You can never be too careful when on long rides with Duke. He has a rep about making decisions about turns that make rides a lot longer. At any rate the GPS registers all kinds of data, like max speed, stop time, move time, distance, current speed, avg speed and most importantly ELEVATION. I want to point out that we started at 1170 feet at WRHS. After fixing Paula's tire, we continued up Route 8 to Becket center, Elevation 1300, then stopped for a rest stop at Becket Town hall at 1576 feet. Wow you would think that was flat, for 18 miles of riding, but nope, it was all up and down. Kind of fun, lots of barnes, cows, funky chickens to see and other stuff, did you Smell the Roses John, or were you with hammer heads, head down, just flying over hills?

We regrouped at the Becket Store for a break. The store is in good location because it has all the amenitites, all though the restroom rating is only 2 Flushes. None the less it had food and water and a portapotty.

The route leaving the store is a long down hill to route 20, then a tough climb up Hiawatha Hill on Bonnie Riggs Road. After I caught my breath, we turned onto Alger Road. Well I would give you the Elevation but I was gasping so much I couldn't see my GPS and it was covered with sweat from dripping off my forehead any way (sorry ladies, gross.) Along Alger, we split into 5 groups. The fast ones that are in a hurry to get somewhere, the ones who just meander along, the ones that are socializing, and then me. I had to die about the fast people, they really didn't know where they were going so they went fast till they had to stop for directions. And guess what? The direction guys were in last Group. I laughed my ass off as I toodled along at 14 mph and they did 18mph. Directions are a great equalizer when time is concered.

When Paula, Jim and I caught them we turned onto Rt 23 and went to the best Restrooms in the county. They are full 5 Flushers, Duke attests to that. It was the final rest stop of the day for the hammer heads. You could see them chaffing to leave, to hit the road, to get on the saddle, to bust out and fly. While the rest of us were enjoying the Air Hand dryer in the bathroom. Man that hand dryer was powerful. Blew the money out of John C.'s hand. (What were you doing with money in your hand in the bath room John?) Also poor deb had an accident She is a bit gun shy as to telling me how it happened, and she swore Paula to secrecy so all I have is a pic of bandaids. Boy she gets to be a star in last weeks blog, great stories, and now she won't talk. Wonder why?

After a short ( for me) and long for ( fast folks) rest stop, off we went around the Otis Reservoir. It was nice tooling around the lake like a parade, the natives were impressed. I know they admired my spandex. We turned left on a road that lead to route 8 then almost immediately turned right onto Cold Springs road.

I love Cold Springs road, it is a very long uphill which allows me to look at the sights. For example, in the last picture there are bed springs being used as fences. (I wonder where he got all those bed springs? Do you thing there is a red light district around?) At any rate on this road we got seperated for good, the fast ones took off, and the rest of us hung togeather. Did you see this Blue Barn John?

There were some comments about the fact that the group split up vs if it should have stayed togeather. You know I figure it really doesn't matter as long as everybody gets back safely what the heck had a great time. I'm certainly not going to bond with fast folks, they don't have patience for me. I will just stay back Smell the Roses, and enjoy the day. So for all those who thought that they sould have stayed with us, nah. They need to have fun too. I enjoyed their company for the little time I saw them. It's OK, we were good. Besides, I knew where I was going. Laugh My Ass Off.

When the remaining riders got togeather on route 23 the ride back was pretty uneventful. We did pass the Ginger Bread House on Tryingham Road. and stopped to enjoy it. It's funny Paula remarked that she had never seen it before. Even though she's a native of Berkshire county I don't find this strange. You really don't see stuff around here unless your on a bike. And how would you know to look for this in your local paper. I've seen so much of the county on a bike, it's truly amazing. I think I know more about the roads in Berkshire County than people who lived here all their lives. I have to thank John Y and Duke for that, getting me on a bike and sticking with me all these years. Thanks Guys.

And we scooted through Lee until we hit Lenoxdale where we took a break to discuss the next turn. What would be a Duke ride with out discussing the next turn.

We decided to do a little Mtn biking on Road bikes. I swear Paula's eyes lit up. She was in her element as soon as we touched dirt. Wouldn't you know it, since I was last I got stuck at RR crossing waiting for a train to go buy. Bummer I had to rest for 10 minutes. Finally after I could cross the crossing I spotted the route.


It was a pretty knarly route, and Paula was in her element. If she hadn't stayed with Deb and I would would have both killed ourselves. I can still hear Paula yelling at us "get your ass back!!!!" Ok, OK!!!! She's a dirt bike Nazi!!! Wow, don't mess with her. But she got Deb and I though some nasty climbs and down hills with out injury.

The rest of the ride was quiet and hot. We finished is about all I can say. My GPS stats say the ride was 60.9 miles. (Sorry Shaun,no metric century.) My average speed was 12.9 mph, Max 39.6. Net Elevation Change was 0 but if you ask my legs, we climbed a lot.

Finally, John did you see the fish?

Other Notes not Related to the Ride:

La Honda Tuesday Nighter
Rachel has a sister in California, that I met at Bousquet this winter. Laura. It turns out she is quite the jockette and is interesting in bike riding too. So interested that she likes to follow our rides and likes the stories and I've put her on distribution for Tuesday night rides. Who knows one day she may make it. Every once in awhile she shares some of her riding experiences with me. Since I'm a blogger I thought I would add her last email to me about her last ride. To set the location, she lives in La Honda, which is near Santa Cruz, South of San Fansico and she has a bike that is older than I am. She once inquired about buying a new bike, she asked the wrong guy, I love spending other peoples money and if I have anything to do with it she will end up with a Trek at about $2000. The following is a write up she sent me. I loved reading it so I thought I would share it with you all. She reports:

A 2.89 mile climbing ride, done in 29 minutes, 800 ft. elev. change from bottom (452 ft.) to top (1252ft.)average over whole ride is 5.25% grade, 6 MPH

My 3 mile trip break-down, featured "heartbreak hill" climbs:

starts off nice, avg. of 3.3% grade for 1.8 mi

13% grade for 0.1 mi, immediately followed by
9% grade for .26 mi, immediately followed by
8% grade for .23 mi, immediately followed by
15.25% grade for 0.1 mi (THAT is my Heartbreak Hill!! Believe me now??), immediately followed by
5.5% grade for .39 mi (with two steep short climbs to end the climb, admire the view down the valley out to the ocean, and back home
It's all downhill from here! (in the true sense of the phrase, 'ey?)
It was funny... I began my ride, and about 1 mile up is the horse farm where Dave the Horse is. ( Blogger note, I love Dave the Horse, he is often on the route with Laura, maybe she can take a pic and send it next time.) Across the street is another farm. The two "farm dogs" are at the bottom of their driveway, sniffing around. I can tell they are friendly (no barking, "smiling" faces) but you know how it is with dogs, one never knows. (Blogger note, I don't like Dogs!!!!)

I go all the way to top, turn around and head back down. 1 minute going downhill, I run into lady running downhill. She must have come from the other path, just at the right time, cuz I'd never passed her before! She had her 3 dogs. I hate coming up behind runners/walkers like I've mentioned. they just don't hear you. One of her dogs was completely freaked by me, Barney, who was a little puppy, australian shephard-type, cute, but insisted on not getting out of my way to let me pass, wanted to run in front of me making little frightened "wff! wff!" noises. "Barney! Barney!" his owner kept calling. I finally stopped, put my foot down, and coaxed him over... Barney finally went to "mom". Sheesh. (Blogger knows this feeling.)

I decide to bomb may way down Heartbreak Hill, top speed. Get to water tank area, lady's walking her big golden retriever or whatever it is. I slow down, so I don't raise too much dust (my path is mostly dirt road) going past them. Then I bomb down rest of way. This dog is fine, on a leash, which is actually the law in our County. But so far, out of 6 dogs, only 1 was on leash.

I get down now onto the La Honda residential streets. Come to intersection, two ladies are walking their dog on a leash. First lady says hi, so does second one, then I realize the leash was a good thing, with a snarling massive muscle of a dog on it, and it's a dark brown pit bull. greaaaaaat...

To round out my ride, I huff and puff up a very short but steep section of road (exactly like heartbreak hill, 15% grade, just before our driveway...). Nice way to end a tough climbing ride, with all downhill til the last 50 feet then it's straight up! Just as I get close to foot of my driveway, our contractor John is backing his huge 3/4-ton pickup down. No place to turn around but at the intersection where I am, so I wait patiently. He makes some comment about having to go up the last hill, couldn't hear him over the diesel engine, but I just laugh and wave.

[Bloggers notes: After reading this story, I thought she was more related to Duke than Rachel. Espicially with all the animals she came across. Wow. And what is it with Californians and Pit Bulls. The following Picture is a map of her route.] This is a 6 mile ride, and she plans to catch a thursday night ride with us while here. She wants to know if she can make it, I tell her in the pure spirit of Duke, If you can go 6 miles you can go 20.



Loosing Fight with Motor Cycle

Oh speaking of accident's, poor Karen, boy she leaned over her Motor Cycle to put something away, and look what happened. . I really think it was a burn from going so fast down hill on Route 8. But she assures me that it was an exhaust pipe from the motor cycle. Ouch is all I can say.

Chapter 4- May 24, 2008- Half a Tosk

Last week I pointed out in the Chapter that timeliness was next to godliness. In other words if the ride is posted at 10 that means be at the start and be ready to go by 10. At least that's what I thought it ment, until yesterday.

Yesterday proved me wrong. I have to ask your forgivness, I was wrong, and I'm sorry for saying it. Yesterday every body was there on time except for ride leader. When it was pointed out to him that he posted the ride at 10 he said "I did?" Shaun and I looked at each other shrugged and started looking for a bathroom. [Small segway--note to West Stockbridge counsel people. If the town has a public bathroom, why isn't it ever open? I can't tell you how many times I've waited till I reached that bath room, only to find it locked. To prvent this in the future, I think the BCA should have a bathroom position similar to the job Paula does for Grates. She calls the offending town DPW and gets grates fixed, so we need somebody to call town health departments to get bathrooms open. What do you think? Any Vollies?] The attached picture is the goup ready to roll, but we are waiting for, you guessed it Potty stops.

It looked to be a beautiful day for a ride. I pulled in at the meeting area at about 9:30 and saw that Karen and Scott where there ahead of me. Shortly Deb Mc I pulled in. Well I say pulled in, it was her second attempt. She actually missed the parking lot and circled the bank building a couple of times looking to find the exit. I'm not sure what the lady in the drive through would have thought. It was kind of strange watching her car go round and round the bank. I could tell this was going to be a good day for Deb when she finally found the exit pulled into our lot, got out of her car then promptly asked for bike chain oil. First thing she said when she go out of car, "I cleaned my bike last night and got all the oil off but I don't have any oil for my chain." Poor Deb no chain lube from anybody. Funny thing was that after she looked all around and asked everybody she found some Pedros lube in her trunk. Good thing, she was planning to start heading for hardware stores. She was proud of her clean bike though, and rightfully so, she did a great Job. I've attached a pic so everybody could see.

The route for this ride was the first half of the Tosk to Hillsdale, NY, then back to W. Stockbridge. The distance was planned to be 50 miles. A good group of folks showed up, John C., Nicky, Shaun, Duke, Mary-Lou, Karen Mills, Debby Mc-I, and Scott L. The route was supposed to get to Rt 71, to Rt 22, west on Rt 21, back roads to Rt 22, down into Hillsdale, then Rt 23 back to Mass. Once in Mass it was You Pick em. Dukes favorite route, "You Pick 'em" Just Ride Baby!!!! This means I don't have a clue where to go from "You Pick'em. We will worry about that when we get there."

Ahh Scott L. Scott wants to do a Century. he brought it up again yesterday. He figures that he's in great shape because he runs a lot, and if the pace of the century only 10 mph he can make it. Today was going to be a good test of that theory. We discussed how he would feel after only 50 miles, that's whe he told us that of all the rides he started, he never finished a Duke Ride. Those of us who have finished Centuries, all had the same thought, we would see how he felt after the 50. [Also doing a Century at10 mph?? Think about how long you would be in saddle at 10 mph. OMG I should have purchased some of that Chamois Wax I talked about last week. I could have sold it to Scott for a profit.]

So off we went up 102 to climb West Center Road, it was a very scenic. As we were slowly climbing West Center Road, John C. shared with us that he was telling his wife, Deb, all the roads look the same; all the same scenery, the same houses, the same rolling hills, the same green trees, and the same red barns. That comment put me back in my saddle. Wow both Shaun and I think every road has it's own charm. I guess because John doesn't realize this because he is powering up hills and down the roads he must be focusing on the joy of biking instead the joy of bonding. I could not let this comment pass by, had to write it down. This is one of the best, a real Duke Comment from a Newbie.. "All the roads look the same." You know, it's like "Just Ride", do we have a Jr Duke in the making? Shaun warned John about saying too much because I may be hard of hearing but when I'm in earshot it gets written about. Yep!!! So John, guess what. I've decided to share with you some typical sights along the way. Oh you can share this Chapter with Deb C. too, so she believes you how all the back roads look. This is just another typical Berkshire House that you see on all the Berksire Roads, esp in North County. I bet we all live in something like this. I'm not the only one picking on poor John. Shaun spent the whole ride pointing out all the different colored barnes along the way. Poor John, the whole ride was about barns. Shaun has a sadistic streak at times.

Look John there is a Brown Barn, and a White one.!!!

Well as I was contemplating Johns point of view, I was ridding behind Scott when all of a sudden he pulled off the road and fell in grass. Damn!!! What the heck happened?!! He pulled off into grass and just rolled over, feet still in pedals. I yelled up to the group ahead and asked them to stop. Turned out Scotts bike seat snapped a bolt and fell off and his feet were so tightly clipped in that he couldn't get them out in time so he just did the Latvalla Flop! After I realized he wasn't hurt it was funny to see him trying to get his feet out of his shoes while they were still clipped in the pedals. Sorry Scott but it was kind of funny. Good thing he didn't get hurt. While we were standing around figuring options, Shaun came back and McGyvered the thing, he took the bike rack off and took the bolt out and used it for the seat. . The Jimmy rig worked after a fashion, way to go Shaun. It didn't work well enough, it was obvious that Scott had to return to the cars. The one positive thing about this was that having to go back kept his record of not finishing a Duke ride intact. This happened 7.4 miles into a 50 miler. Too bad Scott, if your honey do list allows you to, you can come play with us next weekend and we can try again.

So off Scott went with his now useless Rack on his back. After he was down the road a bit Deb Mc-I pointed out that you could tell Scott was a man because his rack was in wrong place. Deb was in different world on this ride.

Oh by the way John did you see this wall? A typical hand made Berkshire Wall that everybody has around yard. I know I have a little smaller one. One Rock!!!

While we were waiting for Scott's bike to get fixed, a number of bike riders cruised by. When I mean a number I mean about 100+. Apparently they are from the NY Cycle club up here touring. We could tell they were from NY because very few of them said hello or even acknowledged our presence. Mary Lou and Nicky kept saying hello and most of them would pedal buy without even looking up. It was quite irritating. Finally two locals came by and waved and smiled and told us to have a nice day. No it wasn't Shaun. We talked about that NY Cycle club the rest of the ride.


The ride continued to rt 71, then west to route 22 in New York, tuning south for long climb. John C. Shot up the climb, he is very strong and missed the briefing about stopping at the top of the climb and waiting. Because instead of regrouping he shot over the top and flew down the long downhill into Hillsdale. The rest of us were standing trying to catch our breath wondering where John went. You can see from the picture that we were all very worried. Since there were no other roads from the top, we finally figured out that he kept going, and Nicky went after him to make sure that he was ok.

We all followed shortly and went directly to the store in Hillsdale, figuring that they were there. By doing that they missed the Rt 21 turn, we thought they might have taken it. We weren't sure and couldn't take the chance so we guessed that they continued straight to the store. Duke was right, they were at the store. When asked what happened it got to be pretty humerous, John was blaming Nicky and Nicky was blaming John. According to John, he was circling, waiting for us at bottom of hill, and Nicky just pedaled by and took him straight to store. Nicky said why not, she knew what was on other route and figured it was more fun sitting at store waiting. True Nicky, True, you cut out a tough climb. Thank you. The only problem is that John missed the Bulls. Another typical road.

After all were togeather we moved down the road 110 yards to a Stewarts where we all had Table Top pies. Finally!!! Man I sat there and enjoyed that pie, thinking of Dudly. Man you missed out. Deb even shared some of her chocolate milk with me. I only drank a little because I was worried that I would start talking as fast as Deb. She promised that I wouldn't. I do wish it would have helped my biking, so I could be as strong as Deb.

At the store, it was pointed out that with Scott gone that the sexes were equally distrubuted, 4 women, and 4 men. First time ever that there has been parity. It was noted that there was not one husband or wife team in this parity. Mary - Lou laughed and said that her husband had her bike in the car at 7:00 that morning for a 10:00 ride. What's he trying to tell you Mary Lou???

The ride back was quiet a lot of long climbs up Rt 23. I liked this climb because we went by a ski area. [ Do you realize it's about 6 months to start of ski season? YES!!] We decided to put more miles on and did a loop around Egermont into Sheffield and back to Egermont. This is a great road and pretty smooth. John, did you see the typical school that all the Berkshire County kids go to?

Oh by the way, I hope you saw the typical trimmed tree.

Last week, when we returned for Old Chatham, we crossed I 90 a number of times and people remarked about it. This week we crossed the Appalachian Trail about 10 times. I was amazed at how many times we weaved our way back, either we were going around in circles or the trail was. And since it's a Duke ride I suspected we were. It wasn't really bad, it did offer another opportunity to see things that are off the beaten path. Yep, a typical Berkshire Monument. I have on in my yard. A Bryan's rebellion. I'll let you figure out what I'm rebelling against. If you are interested in story behind Shay's Rebellion go to this link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays_Rebellion


After admiring the monument and disussing the historical significance of Danny Shays and how it applies to the current cunnundrum of high gas prices we moved on. [If you think we did this you've been smelling too much of Deb's chain lube!] We did move on and we wandered through the back roads of the county, we descoved that Pumpkin Road had some art work that every road has..

Oh and the typical yards. This family doesn't need lawnmowers they have sheep and some dogs watching them. It was pretty neat to stand there and watch the dogs work the sheep up the hill.

Finally we had to stop at the Duke Farm [Old Story, won't be repeated here.] We watched sheep dogs work on hearding the sheep.. We also noted that there was a huge red barn in close proximity, which Shaun couldn't resist in pointing out to John. I think John was thinking the comments have gone to far.

We continued on to Division. It was a quiet ride (No Barns.) When we stopped to regroup on 41 I pointed out to John, Arlos Guthries church. What I didn't know was that Deb was in the movie Alices Restrant as an extra. She shared with us the story about her part, and how she got extra attention from the director, who told her to be quiet she was talking too much. LMAO. Rumor has it that Deb was talking the moment she was born.

Oh John, one more thing before I go... Last week a Turkey, this week a Wood Pecker. Wonder what next week will bring???

Great job guys, 57 miles for most of us. Of course John had to continue till he hit 60. That's ok we've all done it added miles to get cardnel number. By the way you should have gone 62 miles and you would have done metric Century.

Once again, great ride, lot of fun, even good Pies. Man Life is Good.


Notes that have nothing to do with Ride


Chamois Wax

On route 71 Deb and Duke were talking about long rides, and Deb asked Duke the question about saddle sores. Duke responded with use Vasoline. Deb thought he said Gasoline and asked him to repeat his response. He repeated "Vasoline will help with lubrication." Deb once again thought Duke said Gasoline and told Duke, in a very serious voice, that if she used Gasoline it could cause Brush fires. I do not think she realized the connatation. OMG. OMG. I almost fell off bike. Jeez Deb are you OK?? This is not like you.

Piacenties are Grand Parents, Congratulations

Baby Girl. Mark didn't tell me name or stats. But I'm a man and don't really care about the stats anyway. Sorry. So add another Grandma to the list of riders we bike with.

Grates

Note to Grandma. On Division Road, south of Route 41 is a grate that is improperly installed. Shaun wanted me to make sure I told you.

Chapter 3-May 17, 2008 - Red Rock, NY

Before I start this story I have to digress to a Thursday Night Ride, last Thursday Night as a matter of fact. I am only going to mention it because the whole situation was so humorous I can't pass it up.

The ride was on a quiet rest stop off Route 7, just north of the old Springs Restaurant. About 12 potential showed up, in a light sprinkle. Thirty percent chance of rain and it's on the ride, figures. Of course Duke road up from Pittsfield and got soaked. A lot of folks offered him a ride, but the intreped biker he is, he refused.

You know, I was surprised that only 12 folks showed up. I was sure that there would be at least 60. Especially after that wonderful article in the news paper about our Hero's, Shaun, John Y. and Rev Rick. If you didn't see it go online and check it out. Very nice story about tourning rides that BCA offers. Almost made me want to be come a ride leader..................Nah!

Ok, on with the comments about Thursday night. While we were waiting for Duke to Swim in, we noticed about 10 signs posted, "Any Cars Unattended for more than 30 minutes will be Towed." Wait, what's the deal? We will be gone for at least 90 minutes, are our cars going to be here when we get back? Just who the heck set this ride up anyway? Shaun of course and he wasn't here. Oh I get it, his car won't be there to be towed. The bottom line to all of this was that it was the fastest ride I've ever done. I wanted to make sure that the first car towed was the ride leaders. Fortunately the cars weren't towed. Shaun you are so lucky. How would the BCA pay for the towing fees???? Shaun, when challanged about his logic of parking in a no parking zone, logically said they can't tow them all so there was safety in numbers. Oh yeah Shaun, your number wasn't there!!! Good thing they took pitty on us bucko!!!

Oh and a couple of small things, notice the warning about Poison Ivy? Well that certainly discoraged any potty stops at the rest stop. Some rest stop, get your car towed and poison ivy at same time. Great!!! Oh did I tell you about the two major climbs right out of the turn on the road? I didn't? Just let me say that Neils (lets climb Outlook) Wells and Shaun's name will be mentioned in the same breath as lynchings of ride leaders.

OK on to the the ride d'Jour, Red Rock.



The ride started at Stop and Shop with 14 riders. You can see from the photo that it was bit nippy. Jim Creer, debated to go as the Getto biker, if you've seen Jim's hair cut you would know why he wore the hood.


There were 14 riders starting, well I think there were 14. Do you have any idea how hard it is to count riders, esp when they keep changing clothes, sweatshirts on, sweatshirts off, arm warmers, no arm warmers. Jeez, stay still!!! Finally Shaun helped me count, Dudly, John C, Alissa (who? The following picture is Alissa, so if you see her in yarn shop say hello.) Jim C, Nicky C, Pete, Paula, Deb McI, Glenn, Duke, Willy, Scott L., Shaun and me, Bryan. After spending 5 minutes counting, we figured it out and were ready to go. Well not quite ready. Seems like when rides are posted as 10:30 people think that 10:30 is the time they show up. No, my intreped readers, 10:30 is the time the ride starts, not the time you put shoes on, pump your tires, change clothes, etc. People showing up late make the ride longer and Pete has to get home to his eBay business and we certainly don't want to hold that up. Do I sound bitchy with this, I don't mean to be, well maybe I do.. humm, maybe I should be fired as chief blogger. But after all I don't want Pete to miss a sale.

Finally the ride headed out Dan Fox Road, 50 miles planned, on a beautiful sunny day. Thank you weather woman.

The ride went smoothly until we reached 41, where Petes mirror fell off. No problem fixed in a jiffy and we continued down rt 295. ( I sense another eBay purchase in the offing. Wonder how much a mirror is?) What a great down hill rt 295 is. At the bottom of the hill we regrouped and decided who was going to do the 50 or the 25 that Shaun thought he would do. Five folks decided on the Shaun option (more on their experiences at the end of the chapter.) they turned at Queccy Lake and headed out to Rt 22 down to Rt20. Pete was going to go with them, but at the last moment he changed his mind. After you read this story, I don't know what he was worried about, he about killed me at the end of the ride, I couldn't keep up with him.

Those of us that were demented enough to want to spend the day on a bike, continued to NY RT 5 where we climbed up and over to the intersection of Frisbee street. There Duke and Dudly ranted over which route to take. Ahh old times, Duke arguing with somebody about the routes. Frankly, I didn't care I was just dreading the climb ahead. In this case Duke pervaled and we started climbing Rt 5 OMG!!! It was brutal!!

It took a while but we finally met at top. Ate, refreshed, and talked about the climb. [ You will notice in this picture, that Glenn doesn't have a cell phone in his ear. One of the few times in the whole ride.] Speaking of refreshing; do you know that according to Glenn that if you get caught peeing in public you can get arrested for 3rd Degree Sex Offender. Chirst. You talk about being able to hold my bladder for the rest of the ride, that was motivation. I had to take a chance though and found an unused building. Probably To Much Information, but jeeze, I couldn't make another 30 miles.. whew!!!!

The downhill on Rt 5 was a hoot, and it was down hill to the Red Rock. Shaun told me to tell everybody the history of the rock. What the heck is the history of the rock Shaun? Where are you when we need you? Instead of history we got a lot diverse comments.

The discussion started focusing on the oblisk on the top of the rock. It was a stimulating discussion. If you note on the picture of the Oblisk it was erected in 1865. This prompted many comments about the length of time of the erection and further comments on who said they didn't have viagra in those days. All very humerous discussions and very funny. It was hard to continue the ride with the frolicking going on. As much as I'm the serious type, I too, got caught up in the banter. I do want to pass on one thing to my readers though. I have a Dr friend that I questioned on what happens if an erection lasts more than 4 hours. Remember the ads state that if you still feel the impact longer than 4 hours, go see a Dr. So I asked her what the Dr does. Well readers, they cut blood vesals to relieve the pressure!!! OMG, if I ever thought of Viagra, I've decided that I will turn into a Monk first. Sorry about this readers, just thought it was interesting.

After I collected my wits from this sassy talk about the Oblisk, I caught up with the rest of the group and climbed up to rt 295. It was a small Chatham at the intersection, which we crossed to head down to Old Chatham, OC. The crossing wasn't without some danger though, poor John C. fell over. Don't you hate those pedals John? I'm glad your OK though. The important part isn't you though, it your bike. Is it ok?

The OC store is a very up scale country store, I can't afford to buy anything there. Besides why would I want to, it doesn't have any Table Top Pies. Even so we stopped to rest there. When I questioned the choice of stop the group declared that this years crew are a different level of bikers, we don't stop at Stewarts for Pies, we look for upclassed country stores like Old Chatham. Jeeez.. I wonder if the group noticed the number of people that ignored us, many with riding boots, a true measure of friendly folks. Even so, it was a nice stop, John C got some water and we filled our bottles and took off on Rt 13 to find Rt 20, the last climb. It was a grat back road, I don't think a car passed us, rolling hills, spring flowers, frolking horses, and barking dogs (chained), wonderful.

We traveled over I 90 for the 3rd time and 5 miles later ended up on Rt 20. Once again we regrouped so Dudly and Duke could argue over routes. Dudly wanted to do Rt 9, which paralled Rt 20. The only problem is that Rt 9 is hillier than my stomach. Holy Catfish Dudly what are you thinking.. I'm exhausted from climbing and your looking for more hills, even Glenn thought you were crazy. After some lively discussion about male bike shorts and what goes in them and who has them, sanity prevailed, we went Rt20.

On Route 20 Pete started Zooming. What's up with that Pete? You said you had a sniper program on eBay and didn't need to get back; I'm doing 19 mph and couldn't catch you. Didn't you realize the Rt 20 climb was ahead. Finally I gave up trying to catch up and slowed down to 15 mph and just Turtled into Stewarts, enjoying the day.

I finally caught up with group at Stewarts, yes Stewarts. Dudly stopped there to regroup. Funny thing was, nobody went in. Even though they had bathrooms, nobody went in. I guess I'm writting off Table Top ride stops. Darn!!!

It was here that Willy asked me if there was a map for this ride. I almost died laughing, this is a Duke Ride, there never is a map, JUST RIDE!!! Newbies.. I love them.

The climb up 20 was nasty. It was demorializing too, ever looked at the cyclometer at the bottom of a 3 mile climb and see that you are only doing 3 mph?? Well I did and it was depressing. Fortunately I didn't do 3 mph the whole ride and met up with rest of group at the top some time later.

The rest of the ride was uneventful and we made it back to Stop and Shop with no other items of interest. We were all focused on getting back. The following picture is of Paula, I think it says it all about our ride.

Other Topics

What happened to Shauns Group?

The other group made it back nicely. Shaun reports that Rt 22 from East Cannan to Rt 20, is rough. All did the climb up 20 with no problems and they experienced the same issues with the loose rocks on the down hill. They did 28 miles, good ride guys. We ended up with 48.8, except for Chaves, who looped the hotel a couple of times to get 50.1. Rookies!!! :)

Anybody ever heard of Chamois Wax??


I have a side story that has nothing to do with ride, except cause and effect. Yesterday I was in Competitive Edge Shopping for birthday presents for Son who just bought Trek 2.2. I was talking to the sales lady about bike shorts and chamois' and how I hate them getting wet. She referred me to a jar of Chamois cream that you spread on your Chamois prior to the ride to prevent chaffing, wet or dry. I thought, I've been riding for 7 years and who needs a jar of this, after all it was $20. Well I will say no more, but if any body has any feed back on this please let me know if it's worth it. When I can next walk I might go get some.

What to wear, Wear?

Finally is there a dependable site on the proper attire for biking, shirt, shorts, etc. I would like to determine if I'm properly dressed witout having to discuss it with my peers, I do get embarrassed you know. I can see it now.. "Shaun, what kind of underclothes do you wear under your shorts? Or do you wear any?" I don't think I can do that with the seriousness required to have a grown up converstation. After all I am only 59.5 years old. And frankly I can't see me having this discussion with Tom M at Ordinary. I could be there hours trying to figure out how underwear got us into a discussion about city hall.

LIFE IS GOOD.. Thanks Duke another Great Ride. Can we do Twin Lake later in June? And good seeing you again this year Alissa. PS sorry about spell check, keep getting fatal error so I said screw it and published anyway.

Finally a friend that watched with disbelief our climb into Old Concord, NY.

Chapter 2 - May 10- Holy Road Duke

Where to start I have a lot of thoughts on my mind about this ride. It's hard to start with all these jumbled ideas whirling around. So why don't I start with the plan for the ride. It was planned to be 45 miles;, down East New Lenox Road, to Lenoxdale, on to Lee, West on route 102 to West Stockbridge, back on route 41 to route 20. Sounds like a good distance for an early season ride, and as Duke put it there were no major climbs (how do you define Major would have been a good question). It was a good ride! The type of terrain that Nicki, with only 4 rides under her bike shorts, could do with ease. So if the weather held off it should be a good ride.

Ahh the weather. It was amazing, the sun was out, a bit on nippy side, and low humidity, it was the perfect ride weather. Shaun commented on the weather mens job and how accurate that they are. No need to repeat the fact that they called for showers and cloudy Sky's, and it was beautiful. That's why I always show up for a ride, you never know what the weather is really going to be, even 10 miles from the ride start.

There must have been a lot of pent up bike riding desire, 12 people showed up. Quite the crowd, Duke, Nicki and Jim, Mary Lou, Dudly, Deb Mc. , Pete Z, John C., Willy K., Shaun and Pokey Paula. (me makes 12) I was kind of surprised to see so many people. In a way it was nice because of all the energy but in other way it was awkward because we did crowd the road and it's a bit scary with cars passing us when the Peleton is 2 deep.

We started off a little after 11:35 and headed for East New Lenox road. This was a scary part because we were all jockeying for position, and weaving in and out, while cars were trying to get around. I swear all I heard for next 15 minutes was "Car Back!" When we turned on to New Lenox road it turned miserable, pot holes and bumpy pavement. It was hard to ride, it was hard to keep a line, fortunately it was uphill slightly. I was glad to turn on the Road to Eastover. This road is busy, cars were flying by, I really don't like riding this road because of all the turns and hidden driveways and I'm just a poor 250 lb biker, easy prey for cars. But much to my relief we finally made it to Lenoxdale. YES!! We turned left on back road by river and flew into Lenoxdale, that was fun, fun, fun. In the village we regrouped in the Post Office Parking lot. While we were waiting for everybody to show the enterprising post master came out and tried to convince us to buy stamps. Apparently they are going up $.02 on Monday. The Post Master sounded like a carny salesman, get your stamps here. I am glad email prices aren't rising or I would be in trouble.

When we finally headed out, stamp less, we headed to the back roads of Lee to get to lee shops. The road condition was decent but still some pot holes. At the Lee Shops we turned onto Tyringham Road. Holy Cow!!! It was worse than a dirt road. There were holes everywhere, no escape. Paula almost went over handle bars on one hole. When you are riding closley it's hard to see the holes and Paula hit it with no where to turn. She got lucky to hold it. It's hard to believe that anybody could go fast on this road. Well Willy proved that you could go fast on the Holy Road, I guess he was trying to run from all the divots in the road, or even fly over them, but he took off, like a shot. The only unfortunate thing about his break away was that he missed the turn that the rest of us were taking. Poor Shaun had to track him down. Well somebody had to do it, and I voted for him. You go boy!!!!

The turn was good for one thing, it got us off the bad pavement, the road lead us by the Oak and Spruce Condo's. It is a great road as you can see from the following picture.

I was amazed that the Oak and Spruce was crowded. Wonder what those people do in the Berkshires when they come. Probably drive around and look for bikers to complain about being double on crowded roads.

Since I decided to stop and take pics, I lost touch with the main group and waited for Willy And Shaun. This is where the ride started to split up into small groups. I got lost in Stockbridge, I figured Duke would head to the Mobile station but no he had to go to the "Daily Bread Bakery' What's up with that, we never go to the Daily Bread Bakery!!! This place is too high faluting for a bunch of bikers, I like the Mobile station better, at least it has pies. This place didn't have Table Top Pies.


After we all regrouped, we headed back up route 102 for west stockbridge we strung out. Route 102 isn't a hard climb, it's just long, up, up, up. It didn't take long for the better bikers to get ahead and climb. It was great to see John C. streak up to the top and head uphill. It's funny to see wheel suckers jump on his wheel, and carry up to top with him. I wonder what John thought about this, he probably didn't even realize it. Man those guys are strong, Jim, John and Paula, If I were 40 years younger I could have kept up...IN MY DREAMS!!!

West Stockbridge was to be a potty break, unfortunately the public bathrooms there were locked. It occurred to me that they are always locked, whats the sense of having them? So we took a break there anyway and were having a good time chatting, until Pete decided that we had enough gabbing and we had to hit the road. Pete must have had a deal on eBay awaiting his attention at home.

It was at this time that the route change occurred. Since it was so windy, Shaun suggested that we do Swamp Road instead of Rt 41. I agreed because route 41 isn't one of my favorite rides, wind or no wind. So off to Barker Road we went. Actually the road was great, the smoothest road we've been on all day, it was fun. It was also here that the group split up into 3 smaller groups. Very Fast, Fast, and the people that were enjoying the day.

It got even more confusing because the "enjoying the day" group also split later to "enjoying the day" and Me. Some how I got separated from everybody and ended up doing the last 5 miles by myself. Not that it was bad, just that I didn't want the others to worry about me. Fortunately, I showed up about the same time as the other "enjoying the day" people so it was only a short time for worry.

The ride ended up being only 37 miles, because we didn't do Route 41. I really wanted to finish the 45 miles and was tempted to go out and do circles until that happened, John C did. But I needed to get home and mow the lawn...

Thanks Duke Great Ride. See you next week.