Easter Century

About an hour into today's ride, I remembered that I went on a century ride last year at Easter, too, with S, J, and K. We rode down to Brenham, in part to check out a shop that carried locally-produced goods, including local cheeses. I had messaged them in advance to confirm that they'd be open on Easter Sunday, explaining that we would be bicycling there from College Station (50 miles away) and upon receiving the affirmative, we all set out.

They were closed when we arrived, and with his smartphone J confirmed that they had posted to say so just an hour earlier (so, after we had gotten well underway). Typical Texas.

Fortunately, there was a fun-looking restaurant open in the town square, so we at least had a large lunch, and then a nice, scenic trip north.

Today, I rode by myself. This was my second solo century of the year. The first one happened the day before MLK Day, somewhere between the time when S left town and when J and I rode one last Texas 200k brevet.

Today's destination was simple - Nebraska City. Head out of Lincoln, hop onto the shoulder of Highway 2, go up and down a series of small hills, exit at Nebraska City. The shoulder was pretty smooth, and traffic was as nice as it could be on a highway (semi's changed lanes to go around me). Not a single foot of Texas-grade speed-sucker. Hallelujah.



Nebraska City is the start and finish line for the Nebraska 200k and 300k. Since I don't own a car, I have to put some extra thought into methods for getting there. At the moment I am trying to pinch pennies until they squeak, to save up for other things, so I wanted to evaluate what it would be like to ride out there on a Friday evening, spend the night somewhere, get up and do the 200k brevet, then ride home. Bonus miles. And a chance to see what the town is like. The other option would be to rent a car Friday night, drive out Saturday, ride, drive back and turn in keys. Probably more expensive than riding and sleeping somewhere, with the added cost of insurance.

I think I would add Nebraska City to what gfrancie remarked about Nebraska - Nebraska: Surprising. There's a whole host of different things to do in Nebraska City, from the looks of things. I first went by the Lied Lodge, which was a lovely building on the edge of a forest, but which didn't look like it would photograph well. I used their bathrooms and asked if they had any chips for sale, but they didn't. The Lodge had one other thing that I was looking for, however, a 2015 visitor's guide to Nebraska City. The only other things I did were ride across this wood-timber bridge:



and stop at the Shell station downtown for some Fritos (the local gas station and store were closed for Easter). Nebraska City looks like it has some beautiful parks.

In the spring, the winds in Nebraska largely come out of the south-southwest, increasing in power over the course of the day. I made it to Nebraska City in three hours and twenty minutes, mostly with a cross-tailwind, but had some sections with strong winds on the way back. Nothing insurmountable, just...draining. Good brevet training, I figure. So I decided that, instead of going back the way I came, about 20 miles from Lincoln I would detour north towards Eagle, the destination of the Tuesday Nacho Rides (haven't been to any of these yet, might not ever get to go, depending on work and how many bike friends I do or don't make). The northward stretch towards Eagle gave me a relief with 8 miles of tailwinds, then just a bit of headwind for the rest of the ride into town.

I had this song stuck in my head for part of the ride, except I couldn't remember the lyrics correctly (kept thinking "When you're walking in the street," which gave the song more complexity and meaning than it actually has).

When I got home, I put my feet up for about five minutes, then took a shower, changed, and went to the lab to work on urgent cricket chores for a couple of hours. I had to start the century ride at 6 am to ensure I had enough time for the cricket chores. They sucked, as I knew they would, because I was very tired. Then home, for a simple dinner, and soon, bed.

Links: self-development

I appreciated several of the links from RowdyKittens this week.

I don't plan on reading or watching Wild, but can see what Strayed is saying about what she wrote in her journal while she hiked. Sometimes it's hard for me to be sympathetic with my former selves, but I respect that I took the time to write things out.

While the exact details vary from person to person (I dunno about her fertility cycles thing, but whatevs), I thought this notion of redefining one's core self and values was worth considering. I've definitely gone back and forth between the two modes of being on the internet.

S repeatedly raised fears about resentment in our relationship. Ever since annikusrex shared about her rowing coaches' motto of "No Regrets" her freshman year of high school, I've tried to live by those words. This seems to agree with that notion. It's not always easy to know the right action to take, though, especially when the action has major life consequences. [deep, painful sigh]

Many people, for many reasons, cannot, or decide not to, have children. Here is one story of someone who had to come to terms with this at a challenging life stage. It's hard to even touch this subject right now from a personal perspective. The last time I was out to visit AZ, S remarked, "You should have kids!" which stabbed a knife in me and twisted it around. I don't think he realized how hurtful that remark was.