Today, Ryan and I opted out of our usual 70 miler (we’d have to leave the house at 8:00, and it was ~30 out at that time) and struck out on our own a couple of hours later for a chilly century. I mapped out a route that he uploaded to his Garmin in order to give us a little navigational help along the way.

We started by heading towards Herb Parsons lake, then on to the area used for the yearly local road race before heading north to Somerville. We took a short break at the Teague Store then continued north until we reached highway 59. Along the way, we ended up on a few miles of unplanned dirt road, which was a nice break from the paved monotony. Eventually, we reached the town of Braden then headed South- a welcome change since the wind was out of the North/Northwest, and we’d been headed in that direction for the bulk of the trip so far. After a couple of more dirt road miles, it was back to familiar territory on Hwy 196 south of Galloway, then back to the homestead. This makes 100 miler #2 for me. I’m guessing #3 will be Rouge Roubaix in a couple weeks!

If this makes no sense to you, I’m sure Ryan will upload his Garmin map. Take a look at his blog if you’re interested.

Even though I managed to take in a little over 1000 calories of food/drink during the ride, I’m still pretty beat. At one point around mile 90, I spaced out and took a trip to Arkansas… seriously- I was envisioning the Ouachitas around Lake Sylvia for a solid 3 minutes. If Ryan had stopped pedaling, I would have run straight into him and hit the pavement hardcore.
The most awesome part of the ride was getting home to a house that smelled of sweet potato chili that had been bubbling away in the crock pot since we’d left. After a hot shower and a bowl of that, I felt somewhat better. Oh yeah, and I treated myself to a Tazo London Fog Latte from Starbucks as well. If you’re into Earl Grey tea, it’s pretty freakin’ awesome.