roadcx.net

After my final road race of the year (Chattanooga), I have been taking it pretty easy. In fact, I took off three days off the bike this week (Monday, Tuesday, and Friday)! Wednesday, I hit the trails with Andrea on a borrowed MTB (that I might buy from him) and Thursday I participated in the hell on wheels that is the AM Peddlar ride. (Which was made even more sketchy as I arrived late and watched the field roll by as I was finishing getting ready… nothing like starting 1/2 mile back and then working my way up from the back.)

Saturday morning, I took my fresh legs to the Trinity ride. The group was a mixed bag, but there was handful of people in there to make it interesting (although a few of them turned off for some reason after 10-15 miles). Did some fun attacks that pretty much left it down to Bryant, Jeff, and I… Sit up and repeat… At the store (BP in Gallaway), a RV pulled up and asked direction to the Collierville antique shop or something like that. After explaining to the gentleman it was about 20 miles south and that he shouldn’t have gotten off the expressway way at Arlington… the group was long gone and Bryant, Dale and I rolled off in pursuit. We started off easy and then did some solid turns, but we only were able to get the group in sight by the end of the ride (Lenow Rd) after picking off a few that fell off the pace of the group. Oh well, the group was super sketchy anyway.

At the end of the ride, I started to think about what I would do later in the day since Andrea went west to the Ouachita mountains to do some mountain biking at the Womble and later at Camp Robinson. She left on Friday afternoon and set up camp at Lake Sylvia. I got it in my head to pack up some gear and our two dogs and surprise her by heading over. I got on the road at 11:30a, grabbed some Subway and started driving the 170 miles to the campground. I made good time despite a especially annoying run of I-40 traffic (i.e. Truck #1 is going 71 mph, Truck #2 is going 72 mph, clearly Truck #2 HAS to pass truck one and then bog down going over a hill… and line up 20 cars behind … and then have a few cars try to zip up the right lane and squeeze in…)

On the way, I tried to call to make sure that she didn’t pull up camp and ended up leaving her a text asking about the ride. I didn’t hear anything (figured she was still riding?) and went to the campground, getting there around 2:30pm. I easily found her campsite (the campground was a ghost town) and waited a minute hoping that the occasional moments of phone coverage would let me know she was done (by text message, probably). I let the dogs run around and then decided that I should run to town and get something to eat (and be in better cell coverage for a while). And the mosquitoes were eating me up at the campsite (I didn’t bring repellent thinking that Andrea took it with her). So I went to Perryville (about 10 miles away) and got a chicken sandwich at Sonic and waited. After a while, I tried to find some repellent, but couldn’t manage to find it at the grocery store or the gas station. I went back to the campsite and planned to lay down in the tent and wait.

By this time it was getting late (around 5 pm) and I still hadn’t heard from her. So I ended laying down in the tent with the dogs…. I was drifting off when I heard my phone ringing- Andrea’s ring. I picked it up and we talked for a few seconds before the call dropped. I tried to get over to where the phone seemed worked better earlier (up on a hill near the campsite entrance) and she called back. I found that she was close and planning to come back and pick up the tent and stay in Conway.

A few text messages played out like this… (I usually had to resend each of these at least twice since the cell coverage down in the valley where the campground is bad.)

A: “Service is spotty. I will call you in a couple of hours once I am at Lance’s in conway”
R: “Conway is lame.”
A: “Yeah, I know”
R: “Lake slyvia [sic] is a better place.”
R: “Much more private.”
A: “?”
R: “Probably pretty quiet out there I bet”
(after a minute….)
A: “Be there in a minute”

30 seconds later, I saw the Element coming up the drive. I brought her sleeping bag that she had forgotten, but that was not why she was happy. Surprise visit FTW.