tilth: Bicycle Thoughts

The weather here has finally started to become warm and sunny, which means that you can find me rolling around town on my bicycle. On my ride home after garden club this afternoon I was fondly reminiscing about some of rides I have been on over the past ten years or so. I think a quick background about me and bikes is in order...
As a young kid my Dad was into cycling (he was on a team for awhile) so needless to say bikes have been a part of my life for some time now. When I was 7 years old my family went on a bike tour called the NUMB ride, it is from this point on that I can really remember biking. In the beginning my Dad was the only one who rode, but eventually my brother and I attempted to ride our Shopko bikes on the back highways of Nebraska. It was tough, and I can recall always asking how many miles had we gone, just hoping that we were at the heavenly ten mile mark. Every ten miles or so is a SAG, Support and Gear, stop where riders check in, fill up on cookies, fruit, and water. This is also where my Mom would be waiting for my brother and I to drive us the rest of the way into town. Over the years our ten miles became thirty, and then fifty, and then a full days ride. Of course this took several years, a few different bikes, and a lot of hours sitting on the saddle. As I peddled my way all over Nebraska, dipping occasionally into Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, my love for biking grew. There have been some truly amazing moments on these rides, there have been some humorous ones as well, and of course some incredibly painful miles.
One of the most memorable rides was in 2005 from Ainsworth to Valentine, Nebraska. The 50 odd miles or so seemed to fly by thanks to the tail wind we had that day. Out in the sandhills there is no humidity, we rode that day under a wide blue sky and counted the box tortoises along the way. Really though, any day that we had a tail wind, no humidity, and rolling hills was a good day.
Unfortunately, not every day is as great as that. The worst day had to have been the ride in 2007 from Grant to Benkelman. It was a day of almost 70 miles due south. Into a head wind. Under the blazing sun that caused temperatures to soar over 100ºF. The day dragged on and at times I had to stop every few miles to gain back some inclining of my strength. My Dad, brother, and I were a part of the 50 or so riders that finished that brutal day. I'll forever remember that ride as the day I averaged 9mph, sweat my body weight away, nearly fainted, gained a severe sunburn, and rode one of the toughest days in NUMB history.
The very next day that year we rode the 80 some miles from Benkelman to Cambridge. Exhausted from the day before we rode on to Cambridge, with the hope that a head wind would not show up to spite us once again. Luckily, it only came the last part of the day. However, my Dad and I still had a fairly interesting experience that day. It was on our way out of McCook that we had an encounter with some rather stinky fluids. You see, that highway is mainly used by livestock semi-trucks. It was one of these trucks that passed us when a hog (or several) decided to pee. All of which came swirling back in the wind to land on my Dad and I. So even though the day was gorgeous and the wind not too bad, we had to finish the day covered in warm, stinky hog piss.
In any case, I realize I have rambled on for some time now, I could seriously talk about bike rides for a long time. Instead, I'll share some photos from the NUMB.