The 53 Mile Ride

Let me just back up and start from the middle of last week. I got a call from the Rockstar in the middle of the week, he was calling to see if I was interested in going on a long ride St. Francisville this past weekend. I tenatively said yes, but said that I needed to see what my weekend was looking like first. By Friday afternoon, I knew that not much was going on and that a good long ride out in the country would be a nice change of pace. I called up the Rockstar and let him know that I was in. He told me there were a group of people who we would be riding with and that he had a course mapped out and everything. Great! I thought, no real work for me, just getting up and riding a bike. By Saturday afternoon I found out the group had dwindled from about 8 people to 6. Ok, no big deal. We would have a smaller group, still a good ride, the Rockstar was going to make maps for all of us with a 53 mile loop he had prviously scouted out, all systems were go. I headed home early Saturday night to ensure that oversleeping wouldn't be an excuse.

I arrived at the mothership at about 6:35 am. We were all supposed to convene there around 6:45 so I was a little early. People began pulling in and getting out of their cars to get themselves together. We all began loading up the Big Bird Van to take up to St. Francisville. I looked around to notice only 4 of us were out there, myself included. Ok, smaller group, however maybe this meant that I had less of a chance of being left behind:) Me, the Rockstar, Moo Cruz, and The Kid all loaded in. We got on the road at about 7:30 am, heading to St. Francisville in the Big Bird Van. We began talking about food and breakfast options. I, myself hadn't really planned on stopping for breakfast, I had a luna bar in my bag and believed that it would suffice for a morning snack. The Rockstar had other plans though, he was ready to stop at Waffle House, this is when things started taking a turn for the worse. We pulled over to the Waffle House off one of the first exits heading toward Baton Rouge. As we pulled in the parking lot we began to get strange looks from everyone inside, proabably the Van, no it had to be the Van. We all got out and headed in, I stopped by the front door to notice the handwritten sign that read "Before you come inside we want to let yall know that we are only using take out plates and plastic silverware from now on, thank you for understanding". I couldn't help but laugh and point at the sign. We all took a seat at the booth and began to look at the menus. Apparently The Kid was still asleep because he picked up the spanish menu and was attempting to decide what to order by looking at the pictures. When the waitress came over to take our order the Rockstar went on to order a large breakfast, half of which was denied to him because they were "out of it". Eventually we all ordered our food and were back on the road. When we reached the outlets, I made a plea for a Starbucks run, everyone pretty much agreed as a bathroom break was also needed at this point. We headed into starbucks where I was able to get a much needed iced coffee and a scone. We all piled back in the Van and continued the trek to St. Francisville.

10:00 am, we arrived in St. Francisville after several detours due to road closures. We finally got on the bikes around 10:30, after several stops to look for sunscreen for our fair skinned Rockstar. I also need to mention at this point the Rockstar made the now infamous claim "I'd be suprised if we saw 5 cars out on this course". (Never make these claims unless you are absolutely sure of them). We rode out and began the ride, with water bottles, gu, bars, tubes, and phones in tow. We started out the ride and I felt awful, my legs felt as though they were 500 lbs and I couldn't pull anymore. I needed to just ride easy for 5 miles or so. This wasn't the plan that everyone else had in mind though, full speed ahead was more the motto. The first 5 miles in I was being pushed, yes literally pushed up a hill. We decided a new plan was needed. Moo Cruz and I would ride together and The Kid and Rockstar would ride together. Off we all went, about 3 or so miles down the road we caught up to The Kid and Rockstar, apparently we had all missed the turn onto the next road and so we had to go back. At this point in time I started thinking about the added on mileage, and I already knew that I didn't have enough food or water. We headed back down the road and finally came across our turn. The plan now was to meet up in Jackson at a gas stop where we can all refuel and head back together. I was ok with whatever plan we had as long as I didn't have to kill myself riding, since I already felt dead. We headed down the road and my legs finally started to loosen up and the pace changed. I was able to hold on to a steadier pace and really ride. We were rolling along, up and down hills, and the scenery was beautiful. Pastures, farms, big houses, flat roads, trees, everything was falling into place and I was very glad that I decided to make the time to come up for the ride. Moo Cruz began "mooing" at the cows as we passed the pastures, at one point I thought he was a cow because his noises sounded so animal-like. Moo Cruz and I followed our maps dutifully, and more than once we ended up backtracking and asking for directions. At one point we were on Hwy 61, and let me tell you, you haven't really lived until you've had the front half of an 18 wheeler whiz past you at 75 miles/hr. I stopped counting after the first 20 cars that passed us, so much for only seeing 5 cars! About 3 hours into the ride I started to question the supposed mileage that we had been given. 53 miles? We had already gone 50 miles or so and still had not reached the gas stop. Once we reached our turn onto 966 we realized not only had we missed our stop in Jackson but we were almost back to St. Francisville. I called the other 2 to let them know and we were headed back in. As we headed down Joe Trail Dr we came to the end only to realize that once again the directions were a bit misleading. We still had to go down hwy 10 to get back to St. Francisville. At this point I just wanted to be done. "4 to 5 miles down hwy 10" a man told us as he was giving us directions back towards St. Francisville. I pulled together what bit of strength I had left and followed Moo Cruz. About 4 miles down we saw a traffic light in the distance, I yelled out and said, "We're back, we MADE it!". Moo Cruz put both arms in the air in excitement. After 5 hours and 75 miles of hills Moo Cruz and I headed to the Shell station for some much deserved beer. A beer has never tasted so good.