Originally Posted by
jppe
Shorter but really fulfilling ride today. Rode Hwy 20 for 20 miles but lost the shoulder at mile15…
Nasty rain the first few hours. Mistook a puddle that was actually a large pothole....popped a front tire/tube.Wife came up just as I was needing air so used my pump and saved a CO2cartridge…
One of the best hotel suites we've stayed in the whole trip. Just lucked into it, also pet friendly.
Only rode 70 miles but it was more than my age with today being my Birthday. Incredible supper tonight at a spot my wife selected.
Will get some pics up later. Busy, busy day.....but another great one. Got us a little closer to Boston!
My Birthday greetings to you as well and continued congratulations on your progress. On our cross-country trip, we celebrated my wife’s birthday in style by staying at a Holiday Inn in Jefferson City Missouri and having dinner there in the best clothes we were carrying.
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
So, jppe, I hope you don’t mind us spectators glomming and reminiscing on to
your Ride threads…
fine dining in Jefferson City, MO on my wife’s birthday…
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
…When in Jefferson City, MO, I called a high school good friendwho had studied journalism at the well-regarded program at U Missouri in Columbia, about 30 miles away. He drove us to his place where we stayed overnight for a good time,even abandoning our room at the Holiday Inn…
By fine dining, I meant it had white table cloths, at least. 
Originally Posted by
Wildwood
Careful jppe
you are approaching the crowded 1/2 of the country soon.
Channeling my inner wonk,
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
The
mean center of the United States population Is determined by the
United States Census Bureau from the results of each census. The Bureau defines it to be:
The concept ofthe center of population as used by the U.S. Census Bureau is thatof a balance point. The center of population is the point at which animaginary, weightless,rigid, and flat (no elevation effects )surface representation of the 50 states(or 48 conterminous states for calculations made prior to 1960) and the District of Columbia would balance if weights of identical size were placed onit so that each weight represented the location on one person.More specifically,
this calculation is called the mean center of population:Wright County, Missouri 8.0 milessouthwest of Plato (estimated for 2015).
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
The geographic center of the contiguous United States is the center of48
U.S. states as located in a 1918 survey is…in
Kansas about 2.6 miles (4.2 km) northwest of thecenter of
Lebanon, approximately12miles (19 km) south of the
Kansas-
Nebraska border.
Finally, jp, about that pothole. That happened to me once on a wet November,and I tore my beautiful new rain jacket. I also once blew a tire on a pothole unseen in the dark.
Now I know you’re a careful and experienced cyclist, but accidents happen to all of us. One of the valuable rewards of reading Bikeforums IMO is that we experience disasters vicariously rather than personally, and that’s certainly a more comfortable way to learn. As I’ve mentioned in the past, posting is an avocation for me, allowing me to essentially “journal” my thoughts about cycling and lifestyle (even if nobody else reads them), but which I wouldn’t write down otherwise.
So not as an admonishment, but as a reflection, I once posted to this thread,“How to avoid bicycle accidents?”
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
Just yesterday, I posted about my concept of
Riding Safety Aphorisms ("The Sayings of Chairman Jim"), little sayings that come to mind when I encounter a situation where unseen dangers may lurk
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
...I recently posted the mental mindset I have developed over the years to keep as safe as possible, such as "Like a weapon, assume every stopped car is loaded, with an occupant ready to exit,
from either side.
Others as I recall off the top my head:
- Make yourself visible as possible and assume nobody sees you.
- When riding at night, look for cars, not just headlights.
- Make sure you can see the road surface if you ride over a puddle [or leaves, or anything that obscures]; a pothole or frozen ice may lurk at the bottom
- Jim’s Law of the Road: "No matter how lightly-traveled or well-paved the road, a vehicle is likely to pass you on the left as you encounter an obstacle in the right."
Then there is my Golden Rule of Cycling: “Do unto the pedestrians as you would have the cagers unto you.”
Your comment about green lights reminded me of one that I learned in Driver’sTraining in High School,
“You don’t have the right-of-way,until the other yields it to you.” So I always look both ways at intersections,even when I have the green light, whether by bike or car.
Last edited by Jim from Boston; 09-12-16 at 08:14 AM.