Midweek Century to Loogootee and Orleans

For the second week in a row I joined Jim Schroeder on his midweek century ride. This time we were only three, Jim and Dana M and me. I think Dana may have been on every one of these midweek centuries this year!

This week we did a 93 mile loop starting in Bedford. We left Bryan Park about 8 am by car. And left Bedford by bike about 9 am.

Here's a link to the route map. (It has some funny issues about the displayed mileage, adding 30 at Loogootee and another 60 at Orleans for some reason.)

It was a great route, a bit hillier than last week's, a bit shorter, and a bit warmer. I broke out my new insulated water bottles for the occasion. After adding some ice at our two rest stops I still had a little ice left at the end! There was a fair amount of chip-and-seal pavement and, indeed, Jim engineered t last minute alternate route to avoid fresh oil at one point. (Jim in fact drove the whole route the day before just to be sure everything was okay, since he hadn't been on it since last December.) Much of the route had good shade, which was appreciated.

We had our first lunch in Loogootee at about mile 34. There we bought drinks and just ate the sandwiches we were carrying. We had a second lunch at another convenience store in Orleans at about mile 64, where we all bought sandwiches and drinks. And we were back in Bedford before 5 pm.

When we got back to Bloomington, just a few minutes too late to greet the Intermediate Training Ride at Bryan Park, Dana hopped on her bike to add seven miles to make the day an honest century. Jim and I agreed we had had enough. Besides it perfectly balanced the 107 miles for last weeks über century.