Adventures in Thompson?

On Sunday, July 29, suffering from Post Tour Anxiety, I followed two butterflies over the hills to Galena and back to Freeport. Jill Whiting, Colleen Neary and I had a glorious 115 mile ride, although the sun sucked the life out of me legs. More about all that later.

The Tour de France and the PTA has really put the brakes on my writing. So, I share Jill's trip to Thompson this past weekend with you now.


"Still HIGH on the ride Dave took us on last Sunday (which I did AGAIN on Monday – but on the back of Kenbob’s motorcycle – I found I did a LOT less heavy breathing the second time around), today Colleen, Michelle and I (Jillyf!sh) started from Freeport and went out East Loran to 78 North.

At this point I had a not-so-pretty blow-out. Left a quarter-inch hole in my tire, right in the center where “the rubber meets the road”. I put in a new tube along w/ a dollar bill to cover the hole.

As I attempted to pump it up, it blew again. Colleen generously donated her only tube and I tried again. George Washington was staring out the hole at us, so I took one of Colleen’s patches and covered the OUTSIDE of the hole (if I would have thought about it BEFORE pumping, I’d have put it on the inside of the tire. At least George was blind-folded now.)

We were thinking maybe it best to start heading back though we were really psyched to do the planned ride. I said, let’s see if I get 5 feet down the road, and,……if so, we’ll go to Massbach Rd (if I make it that far) and re-evaluate. Well, the patch was still on and the tire still held air, so I felt cocky and said let’s keep going.

We rode Derinda south to Scenic Ridge Road along the east side of Pallisades.

We hit Savanna and Michelle took off down Rt 64 to head back while we took the path down to Thompson. There we found a delightful bike shop called “Arnold’s Bikes and Embroidery” -- REALLY!!! Too funny! He had quite the inventory – a fun shop.

We stopped for lunch and the rain hit! By the time we were ready to hit the road, it subsided a bit but still rained on us all the way to Freeport. We were soaked but happy! We zig-zagged through Chadwick, Lanark, Shannon and back. Clocked 104 miles. Michelle did about 20 less and later wished she rode the extra 20 just to have someone to paceline with and take turns blocking the headwind. NEXT time!

Once I got home the patch was still there but pretty much worn through and George was peeking out again. I really think ol’ George made our ride possible.

For those interested, the 2006 Hawaii Ironman will be televised again tomorrow (Sun) from 4 – 6.

Andrew, gotta tell you about a fun bike gadget I saw at the Embroidery Shop – OOPS, I mean BIKE Shop J, that you’d find interesting as a commuter.

No Italian from me, except CIAO!"

__~O
-\ <,
(*) (*)

~ Jillyf!sh