Hobbieville Ride

We had a relatively small group out for the Saturday club ride this week southwest to Kirksville, Hobbieville, Cincinnati, Solsberry, Hendricksville, and Whitehall.  A few members were off to North Carolina and quite a few were doing the Honor Ride at Crane. The club calendar also listed the Upland Gran Fondo in Louisville.

This was Tim Dowling's first time serving as a ride leader. He mentioned that he was just learning the route and had the idea of learning a route or two well so that he might specialize in those. Not a bad idea for others who might be thinking of leading a ride.

We planned stops and regrouping points at the Rock East turn, Cincinnati, Solsberry, and Whitehall. It eventually turned out that the convenience stores in Cincinnati and Solsberry have closed. The Whitehall service station was very busy.

As always the pavement on Rock East was rougher than any other road around. But they had at least patched the biggest holes.

As usual we broke up into at least two groups. My small group of 5-6 brought up the rear. We were able to sweet-talk someone at the Solsberry Fire Station into letting us refill water bottles.

The guy at the fire station told us that the Cook group has bought the old Yoho's and plans to renovate it as a classic country store. We'll look forward to that!

We took the Howard Road option out of Whitehall instead of the freshly chip-and-sealed 58 to Vernal Pike as recommended by Tammy. It is hilly. But I for one enjoyed the change of scenery and the fewer cars.

Coming into town most of our small group took the B-Line Trail from Adams Street down to First Street, which worked quite well.

Two others separated at Hartstraight in order to take a more circuitous route home and get some extra miles in the saddle. CE reports that by the time they got to Harrodsburg, they needed real food.   "We came up with the idea to split a hamburger.  That way we would get food but not so much as to make us sick in the heat.  Worked out well except I could have easily eaten the whole hamburger.  It was really good.  Then we headed back to town via the Dam Hill and Strain Ridge." Altogether they over 20 additional miles.

It was a warm day; the first serious training for the hotter days of summer. Highs reached the low 80s. But it was still very pleasant in the shade.