Lazy Saturday

Have you ever had one of those Saturdays where you didn't really do much other than laze around all day doing nothing, man those are the days... I didn't have one of those days. My Saturday started before the butt crack of dawn promptly at 5:30 am with a mad dash to get shower, get dressed, throw the bike on the car and boogie down to Lincoln to meet up with the GPBC to ride out to Syracuse Nebraska.


Pretty good turn out for being so early in the morning, temps and wind were almost ideal for a long ride.


Hitting the open road.


Regroup and refuel stop.


Pretty sweet Project One custom Trek Domane.



Second regroup at Unadilla, all sorts of interesting things at this stop.


Like ancient technology that rivals that of cave drawings.


And really expensive lacquered beavers warming their paws in front of nonexistent fires.

I've ridden out to Syracuse a few times but never really went into town just stopped at the "Nutcracker" gas station just off Hwy 2, turns out it's a pretty cool looking little town.


Stopped at BJ's Cafe for a little mid ride refueling in the form of breakfast, felt sorry for the waitress to have 10 smelly cyclists descend on her otherwise quiet morning.


The ride home was a bit slower at the beginning, riding on a gut full of eggs, ham and hash browns isn't exactly ideal but after a few miles the body falls back into it's usual rhythms.

All told I managed to get in just over 61 miles, its my first ride of any real distance so far this year and there couldn't have been a more ideal day for it. Here's to hoping that we get a few more weeks of weather like we had today before it jumps into the holy f#ck it's hot season that is sure to be here shortly.

The other Syracuse

If you're not from around here and someone mentioned Syracuse you'd probably think of the city in New York, it's fifth most populous city, and not the tiny village in Nebraska. However biking from Lincoln to that Syracuse is 1,240 miles further and would take me way more time than I had to ride today, so that other Syracuse was the choice. It was pretty windy again so east/west was definitely going to be less of a struggle and since I had a pending birthday/pool party/BBQ to get to later I got my stupid ass up at 5:15. Not exactly sleeping in on a Saturday but the sun amongst the clouds at dawn's early light more than made up for it.

 





First time I'd been out this way when not surrounded by two tons of metal, glass and rubber, it definitely has more than it's share of roller coaster hills and small towns along the way.


Not sure is there is more to Palmyra than the Caseys but it's a nice Caseys if not.

Unadilla, population 294... give or take, depending on if the U-haul is coming or going.


Getting closer, might have to attempt a Lincoln to Nebraska City and back ride one of these days, you know when I have an hour or two to kill.

Stopped at the "Nutcracker" Cenex station in Syracuse to refuel before heading back to Lincoln. The clouds looked pretty threatening but it never did more that spit a few times the whole ride, even though the weather app said 0% chance of rain, fuckin app.


They do have cats that get their own water though, which actually is pretty amazing, without thumbs and all that.

There was also this barn/shop/house thing, probably misses the farm that used to be here.


Tried to chat up the local, get the lowdown on where the hotspots are and what people do for fun out here. This guy wasn't much of a talker but man was he a good listener, which is good, it's a lot harder to find someone willing to listen and not blather on and on about themselves. I bid adieu to Syracuse, thanked the Nutcracker for listening and headed back to Lincoln.

Somewhere near the edge of Lincoln I managed to run over that looked like a single strand of steel belt from a radial and developed a slow leak in my rear tire. I of course had everything I needed, except the wrench to remove the wheel from the bike. Used to carry one all the time but when I switched over to Chris King hubs with fun bolts I took the tool out, might be time to repack that sucker. So I filled the tire, rode a few miles, stopped to fill the tire, road a few miles; this went on until I made it back to The Bike Rack and was able to borrow their maintenance stand and the much needed wrench.

Didn't even realize that they had a stand and tools in the main area of the shop for just such purposes but it's a great idea. I do feel sorta bad, they had a sale on so the place was full of people and I smelled like the hind  end of a wildebeest... hope I didn't make anyone change their minds about wanting to take up biking after smelling the results. 20 minutes later I was back on the bike, thankfully nothing else of interest happened on the rest of the ride. I'm kind of digging these longer rides but you really have to have some time and an iron ass, even with padded shorts, I spent 4 hours and 47 minutes in saddle for a total of 70.05 miles. Personal best for me as far as single ride mileage goes... not sure where the next ride will be to only time will tell.