Sunday bicycling adventure
Jan. 20th, 2014 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterThis weekend is the traditional weekend for the PHTTTTPH Ride - a trip from Phoenix to Tucson, and then back again. It must be the seventh or eighth anniversary of the ride, by now. Of course, I'm not in Arizona anymore, so I wasn't on the ride, but I appreciated getting to see the progress of a number of my friends along the route, while thinking back to all of the food stops and interesting times, including the year that Wizard earned his nickname. [We had to detour due to some construction, and he took a different route after the detour, mysteriously reappearing further down the route at a tamale stand]. Good memories.
I've joined a different set of traditions out here. The cycling team does a century ride on MLK Day, which I completed over the last two years, but this year I did something slightly different. My friends who are trying out randonneuring wanted to get in a long ride, but one works on MLK Day, so we had to get in the ride a day early. So we set out yesterday morning for Caldwell, where I'd hoped to check out either a kolache bakery or visit the Mad Hatter Tea Room. Alas, Caldwell is a small town in Texas, and both places were closed. Fortunately, a Tex-Mex joint called Masfajitas was open, and served up some second breakfast. It wasn't gourmet dining by any stretch of the imagination, but their cocktail list makes me think I'd be happy to stop in on future expeditions.
From there, we plotted out a route to Independence, TX, and a slight tailwind pushed us there in no time. There's a little country store in Independence that appears to go by the name Independence Food Center. On top of the usual convenience store conveniences, it has a small deli counter. On the first MLK Century, I noted that they had a bunch of different sandwiches freshly made up, all with meat, and asked if it would be possible to get a cheese sandwich of some sort instead. They obliged. This time, among all the hams and turkeys, I spied what I now know is a pimento cheese sandwich. Again, not exactly fine dining, but it was vegetarian and tasted like it had real cheese on it, not just American plastic. It disappeared in an instant.
The route home took us along some meandering hills, then along some flat stretches, then along a few more meandering hills. Which is to say, there wasn't much more excitement, other than spotting a young bald eagle along William Penn Road, and a quick stop on Farm Road 159 where I found two lucky dollar bills.
Today, back to the lab. I've got a lot of science to do, and I should probably get started on it here. Ahem.
I've joined a different set of traditions out here. The cycling team does a century ride on MLK Day, which I completed over the last two years, but this year I did something slightly different. My friends who are trying out randonneuring wanted to get in a long ride, but one works on MLK Day, so we had to get in the ride a day early. So we set out yesterday morning for Caldwell, where I'd hoped to check out either a kolache bakery or visit the Mad Hatter Tea Room. Alas, Caldwell is a small town in Texas, and both places were closed. Fortunately, a Tex-Mex joint called Masfajitas was open, and served up some second breakfast. It wasn't gourmet dining by any stretch of the imagination, but their cocktail list makes me think I'd be happy to stop in on future expeditions.
From there, we plotted out a route to Independence, TX, and a slight tailwind pushed us there in no time. There's a little country store in Independence that appears to go by the name Independence Food Center. On top of the usual convenience store conveniences, it has a small deli counter. On the first MLK Century, I noted that they had a bunch of different sandwiches freshly made up, all with meat, and asked if it would be possible to get a cheese sandwich of some sort instead. They obliged. This time, among all the hams and turkeys, I spied what I now know is a pimento cheese sandwich. Again, not exactly fine dining, but it was vegetarian and tasted like it had real cheese on it, not just American plastic. It disappeared in an instant.
The route home took us along some meandering hills, then along some flat stretches, then along a few more meandering hills. Which is to say, there wasn't much more excitement, other than spotting a young bald eagle along William Penn Road, and a quick stop on Farm Road 159 where I found two lucky dollar bills.
Today, back to the lab. I've got a lot of science to do, and I should probably get started on it here. Ahem.
