jboyd

Ok, so here is my plan for tomorrow. It is 34 miles from my front door in Illinois, to the Bob Evans in Cape Girardeau, MO. I am leaving the house about 8am in the morning and my goal is to destroy an order of B&G about 10:30.

I know I said I was not going to set goals in 09, but this is the exception. I have been having a riding motivation problem lately and I decided that I needed something really go after. Then this evening, a Bob Evans commercial came in and I knew what my calling was.

Camel Bak and do rag is on the counter and ready to go. i will report back later with the outcome, and what menu selections were chosen.

Jay

grimace308

that sounds like a lot of fun, i am jealous. have a good ride. take video of the ride and pics of the food. im going to really start watching what i eat, so im going to be living vicariously through you guys. dont let me down.

~chris

Tom Stormcrowe

Man, I love B&G!

Mazama

LOL!

Sounds good. Don't forget the sausage!

Neil_B

Come out east. We have a cheesesteak ride next month.

denalisexton

I think you just motivated me... I smell the biscuits now!

flip18436572

I would need better motivation than B&G. That has never been something I have ever liked.

chunkyd

Goodness.. why you have to mention B&G! now i have to have some! lol LOVE the B&G

Historian - Cheesesteak should be illigeal ....i'm banned from that part of the country for the great cheesesteak shortage of 06... i put on a eating clinic out there!

jboyd

I am back. Biscuits & Gravy have been had. 32.22 miles were rode. And I have a huge smile on my face.

I took some pics and have a few thoughts about the ride that I will share later today.

GREAT DAY:-) !!!

jboyd

I left the house as planned at 8:00am this morning. The temp was 49. I was perfectly underdressed for the first 15 minutes. Wow was it cold. I had a lot of downhill that made the 49 feel like 29. But, as expected the day was warming and with the riding, so was I.

I rode 32.22 miles to get to my carrot, or in this case biscuits & gravy. The ride consisted of mostly descent and flat for 26 of the 32 miles.

This was a new route for me and I found a wonderful surprise. I live in the middle of a county that is extremely hilly. Not mountains, just thousands of hills. What that means is that every time you go down a hill, you are one minute from heading up another. For the most part, 5 minutes of cruising around here is rare. Well, today was different. At the 6 mile point, I came to a very steep short hill. When I crested, what I found was pure bliss. 4.5 miles of all downhill. I know that is probably not a big deal in some areas, but around here it is primo. I watched my average for the entire 4.5 miles hoover around 27mph. Very nice.

Feeling about the ride: Some of you know that I paddle a little whitewater. When I have an epic day of paddling rapids, I always say to myself. "I wonder what the poor people are doing today?". That was how I felt today. I consider my wealth to be the great experiences I have. Today I wondered..."What are the poor people doing today, who don't get to experience this?"

Below are some random pics in chronological order, and here is the link to all the pics.
https://s425.photobucket.com/albums/p...04%204%202009/


This was the first 4 miles



My 29" Peace……..or Bob Marley a.k.a. RASTA


Me and RASTA takin a break.



The next 4 miles were out in the country.



This was the only hill I encountered in the first 26 miles.



A log cabin never finished. This has been there for years.



Spring is Sprung around here.



Crossing the Mississippi.



Yes, that is a biscuit split in half, 2 over easy eggs on top of the biscuit, slathered with gravy and, if it wasn't bad enough, topped with cheese.



Happy Jay. 32 miles, beautiful day, biscuits & gravy.

chunkyd

Nice ride report man! Congrats..

And i WILL be hitting up a bob evans! that looks delicious!

pipes

I grew up on my moms B and G thats why I use to weigh in at 371 # OMG I love the stuf but NOT Bob Evans . Thats my celebration dinner when I hit my goal ! My wife is going to make B&G and what have you and Iam going to eat that one meal until I get sick or fall asleep :O)

Neil_B

Oh man, you had sausage too!

jboyd

Yeah, I live large (and that is why I am large)

cod.peace

I have never had biscuits and gravy and I can't say it looks terribly tempting. I'm more of the French toast with 100% pure, Grade B, New England-sourced maple syrup crowd. Damn, now I'm hungry

rdtompki

I must have missed the rest of the story. How did you get back from your B&G? If you rode you were certainly well fueled.

youcoming

Every region has there thing, I've had the BnG when my Dad was working in Michigan and yes I liked it. Were I grew up thou we had something a little different for our specialty breakfast. First you take a pound of baccon and fry up nice and crisp, leave grease in pan to use for the fresh caught that morning Lake Trout, add some homemade maple syrup beans, some good old cheese, sliced onions, wild morells a couple eggs over easy with toast and butter. We call it the L'Amable special.(families home region) Guess there's a reason why I'm posting in the clyde section.

jboyd

If you look at that last picture, I am leaning on a Toyota FJ with a bike on the back. My wife and I left the house at the same time. She drove over to Cape and I biked. She hits yard sales on Saturday mornings, picking up collectibles to sell on ebay. We met for breakfast and then drove back. 32 on a mountain bike with knobs is enough for me.

Besides, it was not like this ride was about anything other then fun.

On Easter Sunday, we are going to my wife's aunt. She lives about a mile from that Bob Evans in Cape. I am taking the bike as an escape pod. When I have had enough ham, and enough family (hers), I will ride the 33 miles back home.

grimace308

nice ride. nice pics of ride. the chow looked good. im about to hit the sack, but im debating whether i want to find a late night diner and show them that pic and see if they can whip it up. thanks

~chris

Zardhex

haha....nice work jboyd! I've been lurking around for a bit on the forums, and i was checking this thread out(since i'm a clyde of around 260lbs) and found no better opportunity to introduce my newb self... my girlfriend and I laughed seeing this because we always have goals like that to get us motivated to do those "25 hilly miles to a steak dinner " or "35 miles on the canal towpath(gravely MUP), and then its a 12pack of calorie-laden beers at the end!" Big kudos to you, man...i think most of us get bummed out with the same boring local routes and need to find a motivational "pot 'o gold' that's a bit out of the way from the norm, just to challenge us again....(un)fortunately, our local Bob's is only 5 miles away, so we'll have to make a trek like this a bit more of a challenge oh, and I'm a B&G fan myself....best breakfast ever!

Cheers!

btw...sweet bike...you're ridin a 29'er on the roads? Don't those knobbies drag you down a little bit on the pavement?

atcfoody

I hope you all realize how truly evil you all are. It's bad enough that B & G are one of the best things in the world, but group that with a real Philly Cheesesteak; I think I may cry. This makes my rides for coffee or ice cream seem paltry by comparison.

The only thing I could compete with here would be a Ruben run to Shapiro's. They have one of the best Ruben sandwiches I have ever had, and it is definitely worth all $11.95 you pay for it. YUM!

D

jboyd

First off, Welcome. This is one of the better (empathetic) forums.

Thanks for the Kudos. I don't take life or myself very serious (to a fault sometimes). Goofy is how I roll at 51. The last couple of years of riding have been frustrating for me. The more worried about my speed, distance, climbs, cadence, whatever, the less I liked riding. I swore to myself that I was only going to ride for fun and the hell with the rest of it. That has been my mantra so far this year and it works for me.

As far as the knobs and the road, it doesn't matter to me. I run about 60-65# on the road and 40 on trails. Since I am not trying to see how fast i go, it is of zero concern. I do however switch to a more urban tire from June - Oct normally, just for quiet and comfort. I have only had the GT Peace since january and have not come up with my summer tires yet. I now have to find a 700c tire. None of my old tires will work.

I am taking this bike down to TSALI and DuPont next month for a week, so the knobs will need to stay on till after that.

Jerry in So IL

Does Bob Evans have like a fruit plate? LOL

That is what makes riding in the spring in SI so great, the landscape.

Jerry

funrover 

Cool

Bone Head

Wifey always makes me stop @ a Bob Evans when we are travelling. The closest one is 90+ miles. Thanks to your inspiration, this morning we did the next best thing & went to Denney's. No B&G but the Grand Slam was almost a suitable substitute. Afterward, I had to go for a 25 mi ride to burn some calories!!

Thanks for the great ride report.