Century Saturday

My first century of the year, it was really unplanned and a whole lot of fun.

I left Vermillion solo at 8:00 A.M. with plans to meet up with Cycling Cathy at Dalesburg church, a small church about 14 miles from Vermillion. This went according to our plans and Cycling Cathy and I arrived minutes a part and took off from there. Our plans were to ride towards Beresford and meet up with Mark P., Kwen S., Chad P. and Andy who were meeting in Beresford. Cycling Cathy and I rode and rode and next thing you know we are 5 miles from Beresford. We decided to stop at the top of a hill and wait for the other group. We didn't wait long as they were busy climbing said hill. We all departed for Vermillion which is where we had planned to have lunch and a pit stop.

We rolled into Vermillion and headed to the Coffee Shop Gallery where we meet up with Angie and Ed F. Ed's timing was off a bit today and he had ridden all the way from Burbank to Beresford and back without meeting us on the road. We ordered food and sat down for a nice lunch. We asked another customer at the cafe to take our picture, he took our picture and asked where we had been and where we were going. We told him our route and next thing you know he was running home to gear up and ride with us.

We rolled out of Vermillion minus Qwen S. but plus Angie and Ken (our new recruit) and headed to our next stop which was Gayville. At this point I mentioned to Cycling Cathy we just as well polish off a century. She was up for the idea so off our group went.

We got to Gayville and this is where Angie, Ken, and Ed F. (who easily bagged a big century+ day) decided they had had enough and headed back to Vermillion and Cycling Cathy and I plotted out how many miles we had to continue to complete our century before turning around and heading back to Vermillion. We were now down to Mark P., Chad P., Andy, Cycling Cathy and myself.

We rode 9 miles out of Gayville towards Yankton when Cycling Cathy and I turned around and headed back to Vermillion. Mark P., Andy and Chad P. headed onwards to Lewis and Clark campground where Mark P. and Andy would be camping overnight. Chad P. was going to ride them to their camp site and head back to Alcester to complete his 130+ mile ride.

Cycling Cathy and I headed back to Vermillion with thoughts of Summer Shandy running through our minds. We made it back to Vermillion and headed to my house where Charlie(Cycling Cathy's cool hubby) would be meeting us to give Cycling Cathy a ride back home, after an ice cold Summer Shandy of course.

I was a great ride with great company the whole way. We changed our routes and changed our plans often during the ride trying to adapt on the fly to wind and heat, which made for a fun interesting ride.

Cycling Cathy thanks for the company and your great attitude, I will ride a century with you any day of the week.

Later