This morning, I rode -- competed in? -- the Operation Red Sleigh 100K charity ride.  

    I thought this would be a fun romp through the woods and hills of the southwest portion of Randolph County.  It was fun, but it was a bit faster paced than a romp.  The first clue should have been that they had prizes for the first finishers.  The second clue should have been the large turnout and all the team jerseys.  Actually, I did pick up on the jersey clue and warned my legs that we might see some stress.

    The ride began and finished in Seagrove.  Some of you know the Seagrove area.  I ride in that area pretty frequently.  There’s not much traffic and it’s very rural with good scenery.  It’s also rolly.  By that I mean that there is nowhere to put your marbles down.  They will roll away.  There isn’t one foot of roadway that doesn’t go up or down or straight.  That’s kind of fun, but the legs don’t laugh the whole time.  They laugh some of the time; like when they go past someone who’s breathing like a racehorse that’s about to run itself into the ground.  They don’t laugh when they see other legs pulling away from them and they can’t go any faster even though I tell them to.

    Operation Red Sleigh is a charity near and dear to the hearts of the Highway Patrol, the Sheriff’s Department, and the Fire Department.  They help out some of the poorer people in the county around Christmas time and all of us donated $35 in order to ride.  For that, we got a rest stop with water, fig bars, and sliced fruit on the 100K course.  I stopped just long enough to take an offered bottle of water and fill my water bottle from it and toss the empty into the trash can.  I also grabbed three fig cookies, half a banana, and an orange slice; all of which I put in my jersey pocket.  I started with a Payday bar and water.  Most riders didn’t stop at all.  They grabbed bottles of water and tossed the empties into the ditch.  They were serious about winning a pot.  This is pottery country and I fairly often located myself by saying, “Oh, I’ve been to that pottery,” as we zipped past.

    But what all this law enforcement support really did is they stopped traffic.  At every single intersection, highway patrol cars, or sheriff’s cars, or fire trucks, all with their lights flashing, were parked to block cross traffic and there were uniformed men and women there to wave us through and point which way we were to turn.  They have a pretty big race going on in France right now and they get this kind of treatment, but I’m not used to it.  

    In fact, after we left and I worked my way to somewhere near the front, I realized we had a Highway Patrol motorcycle escort; two of them actually -- a Harley and a Beemer.  I will definitely plan on doing this ride again next year and any other rides that all of law enforcement supports.  

    As we rolled though the intersections, we would thank the officers and they would say, “Thank you, for supporting Operation Red Sleigh.”  

    Ha, twenty-eight miles an hour though a stop sign with three Highway Patrol officers standing in the street and they say, “Thank you!”  That’s worth $35 that goes to a good cause.

    I met him a year and a half ago.  This bike was a white, tig welded, steel bike, built with oversized tubing.  Pegoretti was tastefully painted on the down tube in black and there was some decorative black pin-striping.  

    “That’s a kind of sedate,” I said.  “Some of his paint jobs are pretty way out there.”  This rider agreed, but he was being challenged by a hill and I moved on.  We were basically in the same big group that tightened and spread out most of the morning.

    You can see fog in the picture at the top.  The temperatures were headed up into the nineties and fog on a hot morning means humidity around here.  We finished before the temps hit 90°, but it was hot and humid and it showered on us for the last couple of miles; down-poured on those behind us.

    Just short of the 50K point, we split into two groups: those doing the 100K and those on the 50.  It was pretty hot and humid and the 100K pace eased so I had a good time on both sections.

    The ride started and ended at a school and when we finished,  they had a big feed set up for us in the cafeteria.  There were four or five kinds of meat that I passed up.  I went for baked beans, cole slaw, watermelon, fruit slices, and sweet tea.  It was very good.  If you like to eat, move to Randolph County, North Carolina.

    The Yellow Roadie went with me and we had a blast.  That bike has some wear and tear on it, and I do a nicer job on dropouts than I did when I built the frame (third or fourth), but the tubes and the geometry are absolutely perfect for me.  As a showcase for my work, perhaps it lacks something, but as a ride, I am in love.  

    And I love the roads in southeast part of my county.  That makes me a pretty lucky guy, doesn’t it?  Oh, and just before I arrived at home, I passed Nina.  She was riding her Coho home from a friend’s house.  Yeah, I’m lucky.