It's Saturday. That means RCK and I did our weekly pie ride. We were back on the Irma's Pie Ride route today. I had just walked across the yard with my bike to RCK's house when he asked if I had my digital camera. Back I went. I soon returned with my Sony Mavica FD-85. Those of you familiar with these early cameras know that it is a rather large piece of hardware compared to the cameras of today. RCK had a large, empty pocket in the front of his jacket so he got to carry the beast.

Off we went. It was 8:00 am, 35 degrees, sunny and breezy. A great day for a ride.

Today was the opening day of deer season in Wisconsin. As we were riding we heard plenty of shooting. I expected to see some deer running across the road or through the fields. Nada. Saw lots of blaze orange, though. I digress.

If you follow the link below, you'll get to a web page with the pics RCK took today. Some of them give a feel for the local terrain and some a taste of the local quisine - PIE. That's me with the orange vest and/or blue sweater.

https://www.dandmfriedli.com/bike_rides/[IMG]

Now that is what I call "comfort food." Love it!



Looks like just an awfully fun ride.

Thanks for sharing.

Irma's looks like a right friendly place.
If I'm ever in the area I'll drop by for
a cup of Java and a piece of pie.

Look's like winter is coming on in Wisconsin.

Just to rub it in, it hit 98 degrees on my patio
thermometer today in Southern California.

I just got back from a 20 miler at dusk and
some of the trees are turning color and the
air was crisp and clear for a change and it
was a real peaceful ride, except for a few
idiots in their monster trucks out to harass
recumbent bike riders.

Ned Goudy

Winter is getting here a bit late this year. We just had our first snowfall of the season this past week. Nothing stuck around here. Atleast not for long anyway.

You're going to have to try harder to "rub it in". I don't mind the winter weather too much as long as it stays above zero most of the time. I figure you can always dress up to the cold. When it gets hot, you can only get so naked.

We don't have enough cyclists around here for anybody to make a sport of harassing us.

"When it gets hot, you can only get so naked"

Perhaps you have read my posts about the 73 year-old rider who does 40 miles per day each spring, fall and summer in his bikini (perhaps speedo) and nothing else (except bike shoes)?

He comes REAL close.

Also, somewhere there is a post and picture of real naked riders.

Found them. Just do a google on "naked bicycle riders"

As the poster who asked for pics of Irma's and her pies, I feel right proud. Looking at her sign out front, I'm wondering what is "Beef Curd"? Some quaint midwestern local dish like southern grits or eastern grinders? The carmel apple crunch looked universally wonderful.

Anyway guys, enjoyed all your pics....the locals looked interesting, but why are the riders so layered up...I was overheating today in a wool jersey here in CA?

The next step would be a taste, not just a look, at Irma's pie and hot coffee. Pass on the Beef Curd.

The curds you mistook for "Beef Curds" are actually "Cheese Curds" and they are really tasty. They are fresh cheddar cheese curds dipped in a beer batter and then deep fried. And yes, the pie was gooooood.

As for the riders being layered, it was only 35 degrees and windy this morning.


Dnvrfox,
I remember reading the thread about the old man in the bikini. A few years back, we had a guy like that around here. He rode around on an old single speed bicycle in running shorts and NO shoes.

I just read a book called "Heft on Wheels". Codgeritis is setting in so I can't remember the authors name. The book had his picture on the cover. He was riding a bicycle in his birthday suit. I'm thinking of getting a picture of my 200 lb. carcass all wrapped up in winter riding duds. I'll put it on my web site and call it "Bulk on a Bike".

Hey GrannyGear,
I just went back to take a look at the pic of the sign out in front of Irma's. I was looking at the pic of the menu before. I see what you were referring to now. They were just trying to cram as much info onto that little sign as possible. Kind of like a classified ad. You know, hot beef (sandwiches), burg(ers), (cheese) curds, chic(ken) strips, chili, soup. They didn't abbreviate Irma's Pies 'cause they're too damned good.

Whoa, next weekend bring us back a pic of crunchy beer batter cheese...this just gets better.

Spurred on by Irma's pie, We got away nice and early to get in a full English Breakfast. Temperature was -3c but wrapped up warm and set out for 25 miles offroad on our hills. We took the camera to take a few pictures, Wrapped up warm, but after 5 miles the zips were open, except for the Downhills, and they were cold. First stop was at Wilmington and is the first sight of the South Downs, after 5 miles of Offroad tracks and a bit of road. All we could think of at this stage was getting on top of the hills so no stopping and off we went. Up to the top and the track shocked us. All that frost and it was still -3 but providing we stayed on the frost up the chalk track we had all the grip we wanted. Across the top of the Downs, missing the Sheep and a few of the mud patches and down towards breakfast. Had to stop at one point as we heard a funny noise. It sounded like water running, and it was, but underground. Seems there must be a stream running around here, although we have never seen one. At this point it was-5 and the frost looked as thick as a small pattering of snow. 10 minutes later and we were in for breakfast. We actually went inside today to eat for some reason. Breakfast came, out came the camera, and it had packed up. No pic of breakfast, but 2 sausuges, 2 rashers of bacon, 2 eggs, tomatoes and mushrooms, plenty of toast and preserves and plenty of Good coffee. Just describing it makes me want another.
Trip back was uneventful, nothing to say about it, except the trails had started to defrost, mud was getting sticky, and slippery, but No one fell off, no one had a problem- One rider had washed his bike yesterday, and the brake cables froze when he put the brakes on so he had rubbing brakes till the cables defrosted, but we keep telling him he is too fit in any case. Pity I can't make you drool over the Breakfast, but we will be out there plenty of times before the winter is over, so you will see one- Promise.


Irmas pie looks fantastic, but could be bettered with a good lashing of hot Custard on these cool mornings.

I think I have a new reason to love cycling. You can get your exercise, and eat pie too! What a great thread, good pics, good fellowship. I love it!

That does it! Today is pie day for me!
Thanks for the pictures.

Thanks for sharing the ride. If only you could share the pie!

Your area looks great for riding, nice open roads
On Sat. I headed out for my morning ride, 29 degrees. Really got to try out my new windproof cycle gloves. They seem too work pretty well. For the first five miles or so my index fingers kept getting pretty cold, but in time it was alright. It was a beautiful morning so between that, the layered way I was dressed, plus having ridden 50 plus miles already this week, I decided to take it easy. the result was a very enjoyable morning. Got back to the house a little before 10:00. Had a little over 76 miles for the week and passed 1,400 for the year. Not a bad morning! Not as good as a morning with pie!, but not bad.
Now though I have two light weeks as the family is travelling for Thanksgiving and the following week I have a business trip.
Thanks again for sharing those are nice pics.

Skipper

As we are a forum, with virtual birthday rides, and the camaraderie that goes with it, Perhaps you could inform Irma that her Cafe has to be the Virtual HQ of this forum. Only problem is, as there are 300+ members of this society, some one has to eat a lot of pie to make it worth her while. I would love to taste it, but I doubt that I could get there in a morning-Even on the Tandem- So perhaps you could eat my slice for me. Virtually of course.

Thanks, Everyone. I appreciate your comments and compliments. I'm sure RCK does also.

We do have a lot of pretty good roads for bicycling around here. The county and township roads are well maintained and traffic is usually relatively light. That and the scenery (and the pies) make riding around here down right pleasurable.

p8rider,
What kind of gloves did you get? I'm in the market for some myself.

Again, Thanks everybody.

Maybe we could pass Irma around from state to state - get her a RV with a kitchen, and she could make most of us happy.

(Can an RV go across the ATlantic Ocean for Stapfam?)

Skipper - The gloves are made by Giordana, (Italian) out of a material called WindTex. I may really test them tomorrow morning. Temp to be about 23F.
DnvrFx - I love the roving Irma's idea!!

Stapfam, I have given no little thought to your comments re: Irmas as Virtual HQ. There are two solutions to the pie eating problem.
1)Skipper and I could each eat a piece of pie for every member of the forum. This, of course, would require us to each eat a piece of pie every sat for several years. A daunting task, however, one must make sacrifices for the sake of society as a whole.
2)We could post the upcoming weeks pie selection and let the forum decide what it collectively wishes to eat.(in a manner of speaking)
Either way Skipper and I can rationalize eating a whole lot of pie. This makes makes us happy, Irma's happy and the lbs happy as we purchase newer and heavier duty bikes to haul our bodies around. (think bulk on bikes)

By the way, shouldn't Irma be riding a bike?

On the Ride the Rockies, there are bunch of guys who ride in tux's and have a sort of "bar" attached to one of their bikes.

But attaching a stove/oven to a bike? That would be a real challenge.

send me a rhubarb pie next time you get to irma's

happy thanksgiving