DamJam 2013

Saturday, Sept 7, 2013;

Every year, I say I'm not going to write this one up any longer, this was my 7th time I've ridden this ride, and it's hard to come up with anything new any more. But .....here it is again, one more time. To start with, none of my Shawnee people were going out here this year, I would be the only one from this area to fly the colors. Secondly, I always have a great time, and I always see someone I haven't seen in a while. Both of these proved true again this year. There have been more riders every year I've done this ride. Last year, they set a record at over 500, this year, they had over 600 registered. Not hard to believe when it's the best supported, and best organized ride in the State. Here's the start......

Talk about wind resistance. I mean, I know it's traditional not to shave during a race, but he must have been racing for a LONG time!! He says it's his "swamp cooler"..... cools by evaporation. Or maybe a "protein catcher?"

Always lot of green. The day promised to get very hot, around 95 degrees, and the humidity was already high, so I wanted to get-r-dun as early as I could. I did, however, take time to talk to people as I rode by. One of them was a delightful woman who desribed herself as a "little old lady", and who told me "I'm 63 years old, young man" ....I fell in love with her at that moment!

The town of Spavinaw, OK.

Spavinaw Creek.

This ride takes place in the Ozark foothills, so there is no shortage of hills.

Most of the hills are of the long, shallow variety, but one or two do get a tad steep. By this time, the temperatures were already heating up, and the ride was only half over. This ride is usually nice and cool, really not sure what happened this year. Summer stayed late this year.

The local County Sheriff"s Department must have had 20 cars out working this ride. They were at every intersection for the entire ride, as well as patrolling the course, keeping us safe. This was one of the rest stops, the one usually manned by the 4077th Mash Fun Group, but not this year. One of the ladies at the stop told me they had a prior commitment and couldn't attend, I replied that they were missed.

The green pastures and hills were very pretty this year. , as was Lake Hudson (below)..

This was the first year we've have to wear wrist bands ..... no paper ones for this ride, first class stuff.

All in all, once again, a wonderful ride, the year just wouldn't be complete without riding this one. As mentioned before, I did run into a couple of people I knew from the past, and that always makes it more fun. One ...... A lady from Tulsa, Clair, a librarian for Sperry-Rand Corp, that I did the Tulsa Fall Century with about 8 years ago. What a surprise! We had lost touch with one another, and I had gotten carried along for a bit on this ride by gals in pink .... the Tulsa Tough Divas ..... and was talking to one of them, and thinking this lady looks familiar, but just couldn't place her until she mentioned riding this ride before in the pouring, very cold rain about 7 years ago, and getting so lost, she had to call a SAG to come find her ...... wait a minute, no way two people could have this same story ....... Clair? Yes, it was ...... so, we had a lot of catching up to do. The other was the Pro photographer for the ride .... Donna Meier, we always talk cameras for a bit, and I always get a nice hug from her every year, we have gotten to be good friends over the 7 years I've done this ride. Great photographer, and great lady.
So, anyway, another DamJam ride is history, and once again, I found some pretty pictures, and a story to tell ... hope you enjoyed it. For those interested in this sort of thing, Time spent on bike 4 hours 30 minutes, Distance 71.04 miles, and average speed, 15.7.

Sunrise Century

August 31, 2013:

Crystal and I have been training together for this ride for the entire summer, and now it is time to put the training to use! This started out about four months ago when, on an early ride this Spring, she mentioned that she wanted to do a Century ride this year. Last Fall, she struggled some on her first Metric in Ada, OK, but finished. She had not ridden any during the winter. She thought maybe the HHH ride in Wichita Falls, TX, however, I really didn't think that would be a good first Century ride due to the sheer number of riders involved. So, I thought about the Sunrise Century in Clarksville, TN, as I had been thinking about that one for myself anyway. I suggested it, she looked it up and agreed readily. And, so, we made reservations, paid our dues, and were locked in. Slowly, I started to get her ready for a long ride, building up the miles on every ride we took. She just kept getting stronger and stronger. A little background might help here too ..... Crystal is primarily a runner, a distance runner, does three or four full Marathons a year, does training runs of 15 to 20 miles at a time on trails, up and down hills, she's still in her late 30's and very, very capable, and strong as an ox. She wanted to train with me, because I was one of the few in our club who would go on long distance rides with her. So, we trained, and trained, and trained. She proved to be an avid student and her strength carried her through very well. In fact, somewhere along the line, she became the trainer, and I, the trainee. I think it was a great balance for both of us. Before we knew it, Labor Day weekend was upon us, and we were leaving for Clarksville. Clarksville Tennessee is in the north-central part of Tennessee, up near the Kentucky line. Why this Century you might ask? For one, it was one of Bicycling Magazines top ten Century rides in the nation, two ..... it is fairly flat, and fast ..... and three, the roads were said to be smooth and lightly travelled, and last, it was supposed to be one of the best supported rides in the country. All of these proved to be true and I will report more on this later on in this post. They have an elite peloton that leaves ahead of us, they get all their needs on the run, they never stop in that 100 miles and try to beat last years time. The record is 3 hours 44 minutes. Not THIS old man! I did have aspirations of getting in a 6 hour Century on this one however.  We did arrive a day early, and took a couple of training rides that were described in my last blog post. I did start the day with sore leg muscles today!

Saturday August 31, 2013;

The day didn't dawn any earlier, but we were up at 4:30am so we could get ready, and leave the hotel at 5am for a real breakfast, not the sorry excuse for one that we had yesterday. I-HoP is open that early, and we had a terrific breakfast there, along with about 20 other riders with the same idea. We already had made a few new friends. And so, we drove off to the starting place at the High School, unloaded and got ourselves ready. The weather forecast was for HOT, HOT, and more HOT .... along with extremely humid, all day. The dew point was at 79 in the morning, and only dropped to 75 by 3pm in the afternoon. Stand in one place and sweat out! But, at least one of us looked cheerful and bright eyed this morning.......

The line at the start ..... 1100 riders registered, I think a little less showed. Still a far cry from the 14,000 at the HHH ... This is a manageable start, even for new riders.

A lot of these pictures were taken on the fly, but I did the best I could. Farming country, all through here, with a sprinkling of woods. The roads all were absolutely the best. Smooth, well maintained, and quiet.

I managed to get both of us in this photo, however, I'm just a shadow of my former self....

I know it shouldn't surprise me, but Kentucky and northern Tennessee is still a primary tobacco growing region. Shocks (stooks) of tobacco cut and drying in the field, and some still growing beyond.

And drying on transport trailers before picking up and moved to the drying sheds .

We went by a number of these drying barns like this, doors open on both sides, and the light breeze coming through carrying with it the sweet, strong odor of drying tobacco. I can see why this is so addictive. While I absolutely hate the smell of tobacco smoke, I loved this smell, really wonderful.

Here are a couple of reasons traffic was so light on the roads.

Another thing I noticed here was that many of these "Plain People" (Mennonites I believe) used their farm tractors as cars, zooming up and down the roads on overdrive equipped tractors capable of 40mph or so. Some pulling little trailers behind to bring back what they had purchased in town. The horse pulling the buggy was one of the finest looking animals I have ever seen. I also told the owner that as I went by, and I believe his grin showed that I had probably made a friend for life!

We skipped the first rest stop which was only at ten miles out, and opted to go on to the second, which wasn't until about mile 26 ..... water bottle almost empty. On most of these organized rides, I only take one bottle, as there is plenty of opportunity to refill, on this ride however, this proved to be a mistake, and I was glad that Crystal had taken two, as I'll note later on. This rest stop was at Trenton Kentucky, and had a mobile bike shop there.

Downtown Trenton was undergoing restoration as I had noticed in so many other towns in this general area. One of the other things that both of us noticed and commented to each other on was the absolute lack of trash alongside the roads, in towns, or anywhere. A far cry from trashy Oklahoma roads.

Along the way, I had noticed several other farms displaying restored buildings of varying nature, this one being a very nice restoration of a 60's style Texaco station, complete with period pumps. Took me right back.....

Downtown Sheldon, KY, was also old/new. With a restored courthouse square and courthouse, and the surrounding Main street circle around the courthouse mostly restored, it was like stepping back into the 40's, but with modern touches. Very nice.

Sheldon, Kentucky was the furthest north we travelled, and here we turned south into a 10mph headwind that would last pretty much all the way back. Not particularly refreshing, just a hot, muggy bit of heavy air stirring around you. What was refreshing however, was the occasional thunder stormy looking clouds that came over occasionally and offered a little bit of cooler air, and some shade for a couple of minutes. We were actually praying for a bit of rain. Both of us put on sfs50 sunscreen before the ride, and we both burned quite a bit regardless.

As we went south, the countryside changed a bit, more rolling hills, and lush green pastures. More corn and beans, and less tobacco. This was where all the hills were on the ride, on the return leg. Not to say they were actually hills, certainly not like we have around Oklahoma, but long gentle grades up, and long gentle grades down. There were older towns this way as well, and some not so restored.

The heat was about maximum by this time, it got to 95 degrees, and adding the humidity level to that, it was brutal. I saw many riders taking the SAG in on this leg of the ride. At this point though, we were already over 80 miles, the psychological point where the distance, time, and time left starts to really work on you. It was here, at the rest stop near this little town, that I started getting a little crampy .....not really cramps yet, but a bit of tightness in my left quad. So, I asked the lady at the rest stop if she might have any Advil...... she said ...... "I ain't got no Advil, Hon, but I do gots some Midol .... will that do?" ..... "Oh, yeah, I'll take three, thanks..... I have to say, the stuff worked great. Cramping.....GONE! 
From here on, it was an endurance ride...... just keep on pedalling. Crystal, by now the far stronger rider, was even faltering. She even turned her speedometer back to time of day so she wouldn't have to look at the 85 miles for and eternity before it would change to 86, and so on. From this point on, we stopped at every rest stop, and they even added a couple extra for water and ice. It was also here that Crystal gave me her extra water bottle so I could douse myself with water every so often. It would dry off in five minutes or less, but it kept me going for a while. This was by far the toughest part of the ride. It really wasn't fun anymore, just slog on through to the finish. And, we did! We started together, rode the entire way together and finished together. No finisher picture ..... we were both so hot and tired, we just wanted to get inside where it was cool. People were laying all over, even in the hot parking lot looking like death warmed over with towels over them and friends pouring water over them. One of them, a young girl maybe in her 20's, looked like she was on the verge of heat stroke. We asked if we could help, but the offer was refused. After we got inside...... Frozen Yogurt sandwiches..... a mighty lifesaver. One thing I will have to comment on here, and I left it toward the end of my post to make a point was that there was absolutely NO trash anywhere. Cleanest State I've ever ridden through.

So, it was over, all the summer's training came to fruition. We both finished the Century ride, we were both satisfied with our performance, but even Crystal commented that now that she's done one,  the 65 to 75 miles rides actually seemed much nicer by comparison. I agree. You don't have to destroy yourself to finish, you can actually enjoy that distance, and look forward to more. Maybe if the temperature would have been in the 80's and the humidity down a tad, it might have been different, but the way it was, we were glad to be finished. Crystal now will start in on her marathon training, running 30- to 40 miles every weekend in preparation for her first marathon this year in November. She loves her running, and for now the bicycle training is over. Me..... I've got the 73 mile DamJam ride coming up this very next weekend .... riding's what I got, I'm not a runner.

Fort Donelson National Monument

August 29, 2013.

Crystal and I went to Tennessee for the Sunrise Century 100 mile bike ride in Clarksville, Tennessee this weekend, and we got there a bit early to "settle in" with the climate and do a bit of sightseeing before the event. The good fortunes of bicycling became evident when we decided to stop for a bite at a Subway in Dover Tennessee before we got to Clarksville. While we were eating, a very fit young man comes in the front door, looks around a couple of seconds and comes straight for our table. Asks us ....." are you the ones with the bikes on the back of the silver car?"  "Yes" I replied ..... Then he asked if we were going to do the Sunrise ride Saturday, "Yes", I replied ....... He said he was going to be in the "elite peloton" ..... the one that tries every year to break the existing record, right now set at 3:44 for the 100 miles. So ..... we chatted with him for a while, and told him we wanted to get in a little riding before the big event. One of the things I wanted to do was to visit Fort Donelson National Monument ..... a Civil War fort and battleground. He did mention that it would be a very short ride through there, but he had a suggestion. There was a little ride he trained on that went through the "Land Between The Lakes" National Rec area that was fun ...... of course, there  are a couple of little ol' hills on that route, but they're not bad at all.... So, we promised to swing by his place of business the next morning and he'd give us a map. He really was a very nice, friendly young man ...... how could he ever lie to us about lil' ol' hills .........

Friday, August 30, 2013

Up and about early ..... to the absolutely worst motel breakfast ever!!! But we thought, we'd eat a bit later anyway. And so, we headed out. I had checked before I left, and they take my "Golden Age" passport, so it was free to see, and we took off to visit our battlefield. We did stop at the A1 Collision Center to visit again with Kevin, and pick up the map he promised. I noticed one of his employees chuckling a bit when he once again told us about a "couple of lil' bitty hills" on this route, but I really didn't pay any attention. And so ..... we were off once again. The battlefield and fort there turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip....and fortunately, the only battleground between Crystal and I the entire weekend, as we seem to get along wonderfully. This place is absolutely beautiful.

The Fort itself was temporary quarters, made a bit more permanent by using some 400 log cabins with canvas roofs made from their tents. These things were tiny! Two officers or four non-coms in each one. The battle fought here was the first Union victory of the Civil War, a fact unknown to me.

This was a rebuilt replica cabin taken from old photos and rebuilt to be historically accurate. The old fort grounds were quite beautiful as well...

I saw much evidence that 150 years after the passage of war, even in a bloody battlefield there can once again be peaceful coexistence. 

 

 

The River Batteries....

 

 

 The lower river batteries.

 

Another shot of the lower river batteries.

Crystal caught me in a moment of clowning around, but the purpose was to show the size of these smoothbore guns.



Once a taker of lives is now a giver of life!

The precarious position of our bikes made it a somewhat urgent matter to get back to them and move on.

The entire area of this National Monument was just stunningly beautiful. Crystal, riding off into the wilderness.

There is a National Cemetery at Fort Donelson but in it you will not find any remains of Confederate soldiers ...... here's why.... I never knew.....

Here is the separate Confederate monument.

 At the end of our little ride ....6 miles altogether, we toured the small museum they had there and chatted with the Ranger for a bit.

This was a replica of the gun deck of a Union ironclad with a naval rifle in restored condition.

 



 

 The rifling in the bore of the Naval piece.

This is a good example of the soldier's "ration" of the day.

 

 

Peanuts, rice, beans and hard tack. Pretty meager by today's standards, I'd say.

 

 

Still Friday, the 30th of August.

 

From Fort Donelson, we stopped in Dover for a quick fast food lunch (proved to be a mistake later) we really would have been better off with a snack now and a meal later. The lunch was like a battleship anchor going up those hills.  After lunch, we moved on to the Land Between The Lakes, an innocent enough sounding name. We parked at the Information Center, three miles in from Dover while we did our ride.  It did indeed start out gentle....

 

 

 

Here, you can see the beginnings of the hills in the background. After we got off the main road, and onto the secondary backroads, most hills were of the hike-a-bike variety. No pictures of those, I was just too busy trying to get up and over. I followed Crystal up one, and she made it about halfway before getting off, I actually went on by (crawling), and was able to ride almost to the summit before getting off and waiting. These were not only steep, they were downright long as well. I remember more than once coming down one of these hitting 40mph and looking ahead and both of us saying at the same time....."Ohhhh SHIT!!!" The hills were steep, and the day was warm, but it was such a beautiful ride, neither of us really complained, and we both laughed about it afterward. Now I see why Kevin can average over 25mph for 100 miles.......

Back in the woods I spied this ancient graveyard in the trees and got off the bike to investigate. Old graves ..... born 1806, died 1854.

 The small white crosses are the unmarked graves of blacks who weren't allowed to have marked graves. Most of these in this cemetery were slaves.

 Anyway, this was just another beautiful ride through stunning countryside. We were both so very glad that we took an extra day to go exploring. In fact, both of us exclaimed more than once that we wished we had taken an extra week. By the time we got through this "gentle" 26 mile ride, we were hot, tired, sweaty, and ready for a shower. A 45 minute ride back to Clarksville, shower, and a bit of rest and we were ready for dinner. We enjoyed a nice Italian dinner and got back to our room and I said....... "Hey, it's only 6pm, lets mosey on downtown and see the historical downtown and Riverwalk"...... Crystal, always quick to agree, said sure......and so we turned right around and headed downtown. Once again, this day proved to be one of the best. We spent several hours there and enjoyed every minute.

Clarksville Downtown and Riverwalk

 

We started out walking the riverwalk. While we were trying to find it, we had stopped and asked direction a couple of times, and found the people of Clarksville to be so very nice, polite, and accommodating. We did find it, and it proved to be a nice walk. Only a mile or so, each way, but so very pretty. Many of the reviews I had read mentioned such a terrible odor here, but both of us commented that we smelled nothing unusual at all, and it was a gorgeous walk.

The bridge in the photo above was a very unusal style of drawbridge in that the center section (where the control house is), pivoted 90 degrees to parallel the river and allow larger boats to pass.

This was inside one of the Riverwalk pavilions. A very detailed model from scratch. A lot of the decking and other woodwork appeared to be carved from Popsicle sticks. Unbelievable detail.

A good example of the old churches of the day.... Love the tall steeples.

This is now a museum, what it was originally, I have no idea. It was closed for the evening when we went by. Unusual architecture.

Crystal clowning around.....and my turn to get even for the cannon shot....

After the sun went down, we went back to the Riverwalk, and did it again. It was so much more spectacular after dark. Crystal was a bit nervous about going there after dark, but the people we met were just the nicest!

The clock on one of the side streets, looks authentic, but it's a modern replica, still a nice touch. We both thought the idea of preserving the past made the old town much more enjoyable to visit. We noticed this theme throughout the area as old buildings were not torn down, but totally renovated instead. Our heritage in action! 

This is the Children's fountain. Children in various playtime poses, but the one at the very top was in his mortarboard and with his book saying that learning is the most important thing of all.

Such a wonderful day this was, we got back to the hotel, totally exhausted, a sure sign that we left no stone unturned, and did and saw everything there was in the time we had. So much fun, and such a beautiful place.