What a nice surprise it was to hear that Dan B was in my area with time on his hands! And it was truly an absolutely great day/night for a ride on the Wabash Trace.... just perfect really. Better yet, the company and conversation turned out to be just as good. I really enjoyed spending a few hours with Dan the trucking man. (He has driven the "iceroad" as seen on TV in case you didn't know.)

As Dan said, I picked him up at the truckstop about 3:15 pm and we were at the trailhead in about ten minutes and were riding by 4:00. It's about 6 miles gently uphill to "Margaritaville", a spot of the trail where a good deal of partying takes place on Thursday evenings for the famous weekly Taco Ride. From there, it's 4 miles slightly downhill to Mineola, where the steakhouse is located. After checking Mineola out, we headed on another 5 miles to Silver City, where we planned to dine. Finding the restaurant there shut down (bummer) we took a break and soon headed back to Mineola and the steakhouse. With 20 miles ridden and it being nearly 6:00, we were both hungry and thirsty when we got back to Mineola.

(Sidestory: About 3 or 4 miles into the ride, with us riding side by side, a squirrel darted out and, undecided on which way to escape, got caught between the two bikes. For a few seconds there we were actually herding this panicked critter up the trail between us, hoping against hope that he would not make a bad decision! We slowed down for him of course, but it was kind of exciting and we both laughed when little Rocky finally decided to sprint ahead and get off the trail. I sure do wish we had video of that.)

Here are some pics of the early part of the day, taken at the truckstop and at Margaritaville. I'll upload my pics to Photobucket so that I can include larger photos for part two of my report.... at which time I will defend myself against these slanderous accusations of dropping Dan on the ride back! There were extenuating circumstances.