Excellent century and very entertaining Blog entry! I ride a lot of centuries but I've never started a Blog about them . . . maybe I should!
And, I had a very parallel experiece regarding your friend Joe. For me it was Peg, a wonderful woman I met and began riding with at about mile 125 on the Devil Mountain Double century. This double was so tough I didn't know if I could finish (206 miles and over 20,000 ft. of climbing) but riding with Peg made a HUGE difference.
No, we weren't fast, but we did finish (total time, I think, was 22 hours and 45 minutes) and no, were weren't (quite) the last finishers. Having a wonderful new-found companion to ride and talk with took what could have been a horrible ordeal and turned it into another fun bike ride.
Rick / OCRR