The Irish Tsunami rides!
I have become the king of the forced family outing (FFO). On September 20th we participated in an event in Alexandria, Louisiana to support a historical site called the Kent Plantation House. As usual ride strategy/preparation included:1. Ride as much as we can: This was almost nil except for the fact that the kids to endless laps through the neighborhood. Me not so much though we would only be going 30ish miles at about 10 mph. I am good.
2. Get a good set of tires: Yeah, I got new tires for the Hotter N' Hell Hundred, but somehow they ended up on the Chick's bike. For me it is the same set of Gatorskins I have been using for years; I bought these for the 40th running of RAGBRAI. They have have at least 1500 miles on them and they are probably going to need to replaced soon.
3. Drink a bunch of water: I did a lousy job of hydrating for the several days before the ride. While it is hard to stay hydrated in Louisiana, I drink more water here than say.....Iowa.
4. Shove my jersey pockets as full of calories as possible: Check. Though I love Pearson's Salted Nut Rolls they are not an easy to find Item in Central Louisiana. The next best thing are the cherry pie Lara Bars. The kids love them too.
The difference was that it wasn't just me, I had a 9 year old and a 12 year old with me. This is the longest distance I have ridden with them and there are many lessons learned. But as for the Le Tour de Bayou it was a perfect for this experiment since there were no hills and they had SAG support at every 10 miles.
On a different note no FFO would be complete without an adventure. In this case my "Tough and unforgiving" wife who is also incredibly cheap got us a hotel room for $47. The Army has sent me to some rough places. This was rough. We smelled like cheap hotel and cigarette smoke for the entire day. Everything we brought in the room smelled horrible which meant that my Suburban smelled horrible. It smelled so bad I couldn't sleep as the pillow odor kept me awake. FFO, heck yeah.
On a different note no FFO would be complete without an adventure. In this case my "Tough and unforgiving" wife who is also incredibly cheap got us a hotel room for $47. The Army has sent me to some rough places. This was rough. We smelled like cheap hotel and cigarette smoke for the entire day. Everything we brought in the room smelled horrible which meant that my Suburban smelled horrible. It smelled so bad I couldn't sleep as the pillow odor kept me awake. FFO, heck yeah.
The SAG stops were well spaced. The last one was at a nice road side rest stop that had a great hospitality center and rocking chairs. The Boy Scouts were running it and passing out Coca Cola. I told Diga to keep drinking as much as he wanted. This confused him because I don't let him drink it ever. The Chick doesn't drink soda so she had an apple. She didn't approve of photo ops.
One of the things I enjoy the most as we move is seeing new things. At one point we found ourselves riding through beautiful cotton fields. It was fun seeing cotton balls drifting across the road.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in one place for my whole life. Then I get to experience new places with my family and I know that I would long for that too.
A very tired Chick after 33 miles. I didn't get a picture of Diga because there was a free bouncy house with slide. He dropped the bike and sprinted to run and jump. The boy is a machine!
At the end of the ride the Chick realized that chocolate milk is amazing post ride. We also got a Louisiana special, Spicy Cajun Crawtators. That is right crawfish flavored chips. Delicious.
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