Originally Posted by
Andy_K
This weekend, I finished off the mileage portion of the challenge in fantastic style.
The owner, now reunited with his Takara, stopped by and listened to my stories about what I had done to the bike, and what a pleasure it was to ride (it really was). He was extremely happy with the transformation.
It turns out that the Takara was purchased by the restaurants owner's brother, who had ridden it to the coast several times, so there was some history behind the bike that added to our enjoyment and appreciation of the ride.
The route Andy chose was great, the theme song of Green Acres passed through my mind. Hazelnut orchards, rows of corn, and fields of rhubarb went by, as well as the occasional wheat field.
Our penultimate stop was at the trailhead in Banks. It was starting to get hot, but we found a supermarket that conveniently positioned some coolers out front for the many cyclists that ride this route in the summertime.
The beer, as usual, was the best I've ever tasted. Andy's better half saved me from having my wife drive out with those keys. It was great to see and ride with Dave again, I'm pretty sure it had been two summers ago that he met up with our Magical Mystery Tour of the PNW gang to see us off back in the "before times".
We got in the 100k in one shot. I'm about 6 miles short of putting 100 miles on the Raleigh Super Course MkII Clunker, built in the first fortnight of 1976 at the Worksop site, per the serial number. I'll try and get that in later this week.