Originally Posted by nvr
I rode 5 miles from my house to the meeting place. I met "nothingman" a little after 7am. He still needed to get ready, and I needed to leave right away. I didn't see anyone else from here so I split. I had to be back by 9am to meet the wife and kids for the "family friendly route" we planned on doing. The day was perfect for riding. Weather was a little cool, gentle winds, empty roads, and friendly bikers. The ride seemed to have a lot of hills that never went down. About 5 miles into the ride I realized that I never took my Benadryl, and I forgot my eye drops at home. I tried to tough it out, but man I'm a sissy with my allergies. At the rest stop I refueled on cookies and half a sandwich. I rinsed my dry, itchy eyes with water from my bottle. Relief lasted only 2 miles after I left the stop. I didn't realize that in my haste to get ready, I never washed my bottle (it had accelerade from Saturday's ride). Just rinsed and filled with water. By now I'm 12 miles from the start/finish...dry, itchey, red eyes that felt like they were bleeding, and now my eye lashes are sticking to each other so it's real irritating to even blink. I stopped and called the wife to ask her to bring the eye drops when they come. I raced all the way back because I told my wife to be there at 9. I got to the finish just after 9am, and waited for my family to show up. Doused my eyes, and got everyone's bikes off the car. I switched to the MTB with the trail-a-bike attatched for my 6yo. We all headed out on the 12 mile family route with minimal hills. I was glad to have a "stoker", and I was just happy to be taking it easy after what I just went through. It was a nice scenic route, and we saw a deer in a field. The kids loved that. We made it back to the applause of the SAG guy that passed us 3 times during our ride. Chowed down on brats and cookies, and headed home. Total for me today was 52 miles. We all had a good time. I hope everyone else's ride was enjoyable.
Nothingman LIVES! I was starting to think I had imagined him.
Sound like you had a good ride...all things considered.