Well, I. got my boiled peanuts.....

....but you'll have to wait to find out about them. I wrote my usual long post on Sunday evening when we got back to Nancy's, intending to 'copy and paste' it into the Blog on Monday when I made my jaunt to the Rosboro Library. No dice. I have a 'trial version' of MS Word on this wee 'puter and, apparently, I've used up all my "trysies". Consequently, I couldn't access any of the functions I HAD been accessing - up until Sunday that is. Because of my sketchy internet access, I'd been writing my blog in MS Word, instead of Notepad. So, I couldn't 'copy and paste' nor could I save it to a memory card and transfer it into the blog. So... very soon after I get home, I'll transcribe it from THIS computer onto my laptop at home. Thanks for being patient. In the MEANtime, I'll bring you up to date.

Monday and Tuesday, we kicked back at Nancy's. Monday morning, Nancy and Mark had to make a run to the hardware store for more painting supplies (Nancy had started a painting project - living room and hall walls - that Mark kindly finished that for her - NICE guy that he is!) and we dropped Mark's bike off at the Suzuki joint for an oil change. They dropped me at the library - to post my blog (aargh!) and they ran their errands, picking me up when they were finished. We had lunch at the Cook Out, which is takeout only and has, allegedly, The Best Shakes. There were at least 500 shake flavours from which to choose ;-) I kept it simple and had the Hersey Chocolate; Nancy had Blueberry Cheesecake and Mark had Banana three Berry. We each had a hotdog - my first, and only, one this year. Nancy had cheese on hers; Mark and I had chili, which was good 'cause it masked the flavour of the hotdog! And we ate in the truck in the parking lot. Fun! You'll recall I mentioned that area as having a lot of churches? Our milkshake cups had "Psalms 118:65" printed on them. The takeout paper bags had Galations-something on them and a different Psalms verse. Good grief! OK - I have to add here, the lengths that Mark will go in order to buy lunch for his girls. Nancy was driving her Ford F150, I was in the middle (the booster seat) and Mark was in the regular passenger seat. Here's the scenario - appropriately embellished for story-telling value. He stretched his taut, muscular frame across me, across Nancy - his biceps rippling as he reached toward the clerk to hand her his $50 bill. And he HELD that position for the longest time - stretched across Nancy and me - to get his change. He must have been afraid that Nancy and I would split it ;-) And 'no', we didn't look up those Bible passages as soon as we got home. I geared up and rode back to the Libray for a couple of hours - in the rain and spent a couple of hours there. The pain of addiction....

We had dinner that night at the Golden Corral. I've told you how much Mark "appreciates" his buffet. He'd told me about the Golden Corral LONG before we got down here. It IS impressive but I'm not a buffet fan.

Tuesday was a perfect day. Sunny and 77 degrees! We drove into Durham and: went for a little walk through the Sarah Duke Memorial Gardens, then onto Duke University campus and a tour of Duke Chapel; went to Triangle Cycles (Yamaha et al) to shop for a bike for Nancy and a helmet for me; we got a spare MC key cut for me (remember, I bent mine); had lunch at the Streets of Southpoint Mall (VERY nice mall; too bad I'm not a shopper); and Nancy finished the afternoon by taking us through Chapel Hill and seeing UNC where she works. When we got home, I raced off to the Library for half an hour - before the cranky librarians turned out the lights on me, early (ie, before the 1800h closing time). Stopped at the Food Lion on the way home to pick up the ingredients for Nancy's apple tart - 'in kind' remuneration for Mark's painting services.

Wednesday was D (departure) Day. Grey, overcast and around 11 degrees when we left Nancy's at 1030h. Nancy's friend & neighbour, Sonia, stopped by on her way home from work (she's an oncology nurse) with bagels for breakfast. She and Nancy led us out to the highway - which was very helpful as there must be 47 roads in and out of the quasi-rural community of Timberlake. What a confusing place to drive around! Today was such a miserable ride, I can scarcely remember yesterday's. Suffice to say, the temperature dropped to 5 degrees and we were wet so we stopped earlier than we wanted - after 502 kms - at the Econo Lodge in Winchester - same place we stayed on the way down last week. Same chap, Mark, was on the registration desk. He's a pleasant guy and was very appreciative of our return visit. The weather forecast for today was less than stellar for a nice ride day so we set out at 0750h, which at least let us beat the rain that was impending in Windchester......

Which brings up to today. Damn. What a freaking miserable day, starting with my less than 2 hours of sleep last night. When we left Winchester, the temperature was 5 degrees. At 200km and 2 hours on the road, we stopped at a 'travel plaza' for gas. Mark had breakfast and I had coffee and a bowl of soup. The first hassle of the day was the requirement for a bloody postal code when using a credit card at the gas pumps. And it wouldn't accept 90210 ;-) (hey! the NYC subway system did when I got a subway pass). It had rained or drizzled the whole time, so by this time we were pretty well soaked. My gear was holding up quite well except my feet were chilly and my neck scarf was damp. Mark's gloves were goners. I took my boots off during our break and was ok for awhile once we got back on the road.

When we went back out, the temperature had dropped to 4 degrees. According to the weather forecast, the snow-rain showers forecast for Scranton - our turnoff point to head east - had changed to light rain. Not so. We went about 30 km when the temp dropped to 3, 2, 1 .... zero and we had hit snow. What a drag. We slowed down and just as I was wondering if the Feej's thermometer registers negative values, I got the answer to my question. It does. Minus 1. To borrow John Bliss's term, I'm a bit of a 'nothenarian' in the religious department so I wasn't all that optimistic that my brief prayer to keep us 'tards safe was going to work. But, here we are, holed up in Danbury, Connecticut, telling you about it.

I think we went only about 130 km before the next break. And we thought we were soaked before! We spent quite a bit of time at the Rest Area. I wouldn't take my helmet off since I didn't want to rearrange my neck gear. I took my jacket off - it was laden with water; the wind/waterproof layer is inside so the outside gets soaked. Same with the pants. I took my boots off and held them under the hand-blowdryer to warm them up! (I did that at least 2 more times before we pulled off the road for the day). And every time I took my gloves off, I had to be really careful to have my hands dry before I put them back inside the gloves. Kind of hard to do since my jacket and cuffs were so wet. Struggling into the gloves and getting them tucked inside the sleeve and the sleeve cinched was a sight it inself. Because I have heated grips on my bike, I was thinking that my gloves were staying dry because my hands weren't cold. But at the last couple of stops when I had to take my gloves off, my fingers were WHITE and puckered - and feeling pretty tender. So not so dry after all, but not cold - until the very end.

Our gas stop in New Jersey was a little prolonged as we ministered to our wet and cold gear and body parts. I had to laugh when I 'clumped' out of the washroom after heating my boots under the hand blower and my gear was so wet. There was a young lad (20s I'd guess) at the cash; he watched me moving toward him and this big grin came over his face as he gave me a 'thumb up'. I chuckled and assured him this was NOT a fun ride :-). I say 'clumped' because I felt as though I was walking like Frankenstein. Or Ralphie in A Christmas Story - when he got dressed in his snowsuit and couldn't move his arms. I was wearing: my hundred-day shirt, my CFR (rally) shirt, a lightweight cotton sweater, a long-sleeved t-shirt and the fleece liner to my suit. Bottoms: Janet G's bicycle shorts (the padding really helped; recall the little problem I had with my saddle coming home from CfR!) and my jeans under my riding pants! And big wool socks in my boots. Note to self: "get a freaking heated vest!"!

Our objective was to get to Hartford, which is an hour from here. Couldn't do it. It had started to snow again and this time I couldn't keep it off my helmet shield. Previously, slush would build up on my windshield and every once in awhile, a piece of it would slide off and smack into my shield on the way by. But after our last stop, the snow kept building up on my helmet shield and the shield kept fogging up so I had to keep cracking it open which let in lots of cold air and snow/sleet. Wiping the snow every 30-45 seconds kept my hand off the grip and then I found out how wet and cold my hand was. LONG story short.... the temperature was back down to zero and 1 (the highest it had gotten was 2), and by the time we decided on the Super 8 motel in Danbury, my left hand was hardly working and the traffic was 'stop and go' - like first gear, creep along - in the cold and snow and with my left (clutch) hand barely working. I was in pretty pitiful shape. All that said, our ETA at home has been delayed to Saturday afternoon versus Friday evening.

for those of you who know me and may even love me ;-), a bit of a postscript about our rooms at the Super 8. At the visitors Center 4 kms back on the highway, I picked up one of those Tourist Coupon Books and Danbury-area hotels were on the first page. The Super 8 rate was $59.95 and it included wireless internet. Great! There were hardly any cars in the yard when we got here - no thanks to that POS Zumo which had us turn left when we should have turned right - yet the ESL (english second language) lad at the registration desk SEEMED to be telling me that "all those special-rate rooms were gone". I say "seemed" because I couldn't really make out what, exactly, he was saying between HIS language, MY earplugs and the sound of the waterfall coming off my gear. Now, you know I was not going to buy this. I hadn't noticed any such limitations on the coupon so I just stood there - looking at him - as I gathered my wits in anticipation of possibly needing to 'have a word' with him. Mark, the peacekeeper, was still outside so it was just "me and buddy" in the standoff . Luckily, he caved before I could open my mouth and we got the $59.95 rate, just as Mark came through the door.

So.... stay tuned for the last ride post that I'll transcribe maybe Sunday, when I get home from work (yup, I picked up a shift while I was away). And I'll also post the Smugmug gallery url when I get it set up.

Cheers for now!