Southbury

Southbury. The good, the bad and the downright ugly.  This ride, for some reason had me questioning why I was doing this again. I did not make the Southbury ride last year, it was scheduled for a weekend that I had to work. All I heard about from the rest of my team was how tough a ride this was, So this year, I was not doing any jigs when I found that I was not working the weekend of the Southbury ride, and I really was looking for a reason, ANY reason not to go. But, I am nothing if not stubborn, and I don't give up or give in easily, so, I went. Kicking, screaming and whining all the way to Southbury. Now, after the fact, I can say it wasn't all bad, it did have some good points, along with a big dose of ugly.

The good.  The view of "Old Connecticut", rolling pastures, beautiful equestrian properties, estates, farmhouses, rivers, streams and waterfalls filled my heart was really at times, breathtaking. It made me think of the Arlo Guthrie song, City of New Orleans....   All along the southbound odyssey the train pulls out at Kankakee, Rolls along past houses, farms and fields... The Housatonic River meandering along to our left. I kept looking into the woods we were passing to see if I might see one of the many bald eagles that have taken up residence in the area. Farms, beautiful farms, green pastures, old barns, old houses. It really was a beautiful ride, and it really gives a glimpse into Connecticut's history. The views were so different than what I usually see on my daily ride into Hartford for work.

The bad. The weather. This is April, mid April. Come on! Mother Nature are you punking me??? It felt more like November or early December. Cold. 40's at the start and I am not sure the temperature made it into the 50's. Windy. Not breezy, windy. Like Billy said the other day, "how come the weather people are never wrong about the wind?" They can be wrong about the temp, or the rain, but they are never wrong about the wind. And that cold wind made me think it was more like the first of December, not mid April. Cold, bitterly so. It would come up and hit me head on just as I was cresting a hill, and then stay with me as I made my descent.  The every once in a while a gust of cross wind would come up and just about knock me off the bike. At one point there was a little tornado made of old dead leaves that got stirred up. Like I said, more like November or December than April. And then, when it felt like the wind and the cold couldn't get any worse, it started to rain. Thankfully it waited until we were within a couple of miles of the commuter parking lot, and almost done with the ride. By the time we were done, I was cold, and tired, and in dire need of a hot cup of tea,which I got.  Thank you, Billy!


The downright ugly. The hills. While they are an integral part of the scenery, in a car they pose no problem. On a bike???? Different story. We left the commuter lot and started a nice relatively reasonable climb, with a nice downhill attached to it on the other side. One would think that if you go up, you will eventually come down. These hills just seemed to keep going up (and up and up and up).  Now, you might think I am making a mountain our of a molehill (sorry, am tired and a bit punchy), but I can assure you I am not. The official garmin (Daves unit) said we did 4611 feet of elevation gain, some of the hills had an 18% grade  For a ride of only 51 miles that is a lot of climbing. That is about what the Lake Tahoe ride has in 100 miles! I think I conquered it fairly well. I stopped to catch my breath once, which was a good move, except I should have looked for a somewhat flatter spot to stop. It was quite steep at that spot and I had trouble getting going again and landed in the soft sod on the side of the road, with my legs tangled in my bike so that I couldn't get up. Thankfully, I got a helping hand from Jen.  I walked about 10 feet and found a flat-ish driveway and was able to get back on the bike and continue my ascent.  It seemed as though the hills just kept coming and coming, with no relief. Once we were a little over three quarters of the way done, things leveled out and gave us more gentle rolling hills, with ups and downs, and less of the steep grades.

This ride, prepares us for Lake Tahoe. But what the heck am I doing here? On a Saturday??? I didn't have to work! I could have been home, warm and snug with a good book or my recipe box and my oven mitts. But nooooo, I chose to be out in horrible weather, riding up horrible hills (okay, they made for a pretty picture, I will give them that!). Then Jen (who is wise beyond her 30 or so years) said.... we choose to be here, we choose to be doing this. So, if we are walking up a hill, pushing a bike, we will do that with our heads held high. The patients we ride for don't choose to have leukemia, they don't choose their disease. So, with that, I am going to relish the choice I made to do this, to do this for someone else, and in the name of someone else. And,  I am going to give myself a pat on the back for making it up those hills, and maybe a cookie or two.