All The Feels

This week has gotten away from me, it's already Friday and I'm technically two blog posts behind so I'm just going to make them one post. They are similarly related so I'll allow it. Saturday was the Wear Yellow Nebraska Ride to raise awareness and money to help fight cancer. Wednesday was the annual Ride of Silence to raise awareness and as a memorial to those killed while riding their bicycle. The older I get the more aware I am of death and how unfair and uncaring it can be. When I was a kid I didn't think about cancer or people getting killed by motor vehicles while riding their bicycle but I know people affected by both now. The feelings were in full effect this week for sure. Probably not a lot for words on this post, what do you say about cancer and vehicular homicide that would explain why they happen and why there is seemingly nothing that can be done about either to stop it.





The last few years the skies always seem to be overcast and on the verge of raining and maybe that is fitting for this type of ride and all the misery that cancer has and continues to cause. Saturday Nebraska was putting on a spectacular cloud show, thankfully no rain fell on us.





Despite the threat of rain the days leading up to the ride, the roads were in great shape. I am fortunate to have such a great group of friends to ride with, they make even the difficult rides a bit easier.





Wednesday was the Ride of Silence, a ride that didn't mean much to me a few years ago but has become personal in the last few years. It was good to see so many RG shirts and to see how many folks Randy has touched and who came out to ride for him and all of those killed while riding.








After the official ride some of us headed over for some ice cream, it was good to be able to socialize with people after and to be able to talk to them. I love the concept behind the Ride of Silence but ice cream is a universal bonding agent and talking doesn't hurt either.

Wear Yellow

Saturday was the annual Wear Yellow ride to help support the fight against cancer, it's the second year that they have had a gravel route but the first year we decided to do that route. I opted to dust off the Pugsley and ride that since it's been awhile since Pugs came out to play.






Early morning rain and thunderstorms made the course a tad less than ideal but it wouldn't be the first time we've ridden roads that weren't as dry as we'd like them to be. The fog, low temps and overcast skies weren't going to improve the conditions too much over the course of the day either.



Saw a few people turn back and a few others second guessing to stay the course or find the nearest pavement out of Dodge.




One positive thing about the conditions is that the ditch beers stay nice and cold, there were some tasty ones on this ride.





Despite the overcast skies and soft gravel, the route was pretty good and had some decent scenery.



Gravel had some of the same stops as the more familiar road routes from years past... there was even a reenactment of the now infamous banana incident.




Ran into a few roads that weren't exactly opened to traffic making the off road course a little more off road than was originally planned, the rains did not help with this either, some of these sections were muddier than the gravel.






Just a few pictures from the route.


Little bit of mud on the fender, doesn't look like much but it helps keep a portion of the mud from ending up in your face and that's always a good thing.





Greenwood was the first town on the route, also a popular spot due to a bathroom with running water and everything. Looks like the Co-Op is permanently closed however, which is too bad as I was looking forward to a nice cold beverage but I guess that would have to wait.


We also crossed paths with the road routes at Greenwood, they looked no less dry or warm but were noticeably cleaner than we were but what fun is staying clean.




Shortly after we flew through the town of Ashland, not sure exactly why but the pace ticked up noticeably after we left Greenwood.


I decided that heading back to the finish with a full beer went against the rules of ditch beering, so Mike, Todd and I stopped on a nice gravel road a few miles from the end and enjoyed a tasty beverage whilst the rest of the group was nowhere to be seen.



That beer hit the spot and the three of us sort of settled into a cruising pace after that and even met up with the Luebkes and Bill a little ways down the road and rode in with them to the finish.


Pancakes, sausage and either OJ or coffee always await you at the finish and we of course stayed and indulged in the battered goodness. That ended the WYR for 2018 and it was a fun one as usual, I headed home, cleaned up and then headed back to Mahoney to meet up with the crew at Dave and Carlos' campsite for more fun.




The cooler temps were perfect for sitting around the campfire eating, drinking and enjoying great company; all in all it was a great weekend with even better friends.