Hard Start

It was a tense moment, down in the engine room.  Johann, Bill, and I were all there, at our assigned stations.  Bill was tending the gauges and clocks.  Johann and I sat at our consoles.  At the appointed hour we each inserted our keys and then turned them, right first, then full left.  For an awful moment there was only silence, then the beast coughed and shook.

“More choke!”  Bill shouted.  “Give it some spark advance!”

“Ve haff der shteam!”  Johann said, more calmly than I would have.  “Encaging der drives,”  pause,  “Unt ve haff rotation.”

“Speed looks good,”  Bill said, from his instrument console.  “Gyros are stable, rate is stable.  Track is centered.  We have a good launch.”

And so, with a shudder and a bang, and then some scrambling, we managed to get the New Year fired up.  Honest, for a moment or two, I wasn’t sure it would run.

Penance Ride:

After a shaky and somewhat uncertain year-launch a group of us met in the pre-dawn dark.  We were planning to ride the sun up into the sky of a brand new year.  Ordinarily I’d say that would be my ideal way to start a year.  (More on that a bit later on.)

Present at the start where Ryan, Amy, Tim, Doug, Chris, Amelia,  Amelia’s friend (whose name I never quite got.  Sorry.), and me.

It was still dark when we pushed off, so we positioned the two best lighted riders at the front and back of the group, and rode in good order, down the virtually deserted Peachtree Parkway.  Rick joined us along the way.

Weird weather for the start.  It was cold.  I mean it was a good bit colder than expected.  Most of us were pretty well geared up for it, but there was a surprise waiting.  As we climbed up to Senoia, at the top of the last hill on Rockaway Rd, the temp suddenly jumped a good nine degrees warmer.  We would see this effect for the next hour and a half.  The low spots were quite cold, but the hill tops were so warm and sultry that glasses fogged.

Now we come to the hard part.  Flyers say that any landing which can be walked away from is a good landing.  There is a similar (though not often stated) maxim in cycling.  Any ride that you can finish is a good ride.  My personal story for the day is one of a long grueling slog.  I started out the day a in good bit less than ideal shape.  I’ve been pretty fatigued by a tough schedule lately, and the onset of a huge and nasty cold certainly hasn’t improved my fitness.  Add to that a sprung back and a gimpy leg, along with a few other ailments, and you get the picture.  I was struggling almost from the start.

The “hard chargers” left us fairly early on.  And by the time we reached the outskirts of Greenville, I pretty much knew that I was not in it for the long route.  I bid the remainder of the crowd a happy ride, and turned for the “shorter” (68 miles) option.

I learned, from phone calls, texts, and Facebook posts that everyone had a fairly successful day.  I’m glad for that.  For myself, I managed to get back to the start under m own power.  I’m listing this one in the “moral victory” column.

Good ride, and Happy New Year all!