See more photo at http://www.husar.us/blog/archives/161197

I started out with sunny blue skies. I thought to myself this is going to be a great ride. The sun lasted about 15 minutes and then I never saw it again. Complete overcast the rest of the trip.

I had no idea the wind was going to be as strong as it was. Looking back I would have never starting this adventure had I know it would be that bad. But hindsight is 20/20 and once I started I was not stopping. I have never rode into wind like that before. Starting out was about the hardest. It was blowing like crazy and at times I bet my 5k running pace was faster than it was riding my fixed gear into that headwind. All I could think about was getting close to Adel, IA because I knew the trail would have some tree cover and that meant less wind.

And so it went. My house to Adel, IA to Redfield, IA to Linden, IA to Panora, IA to Yale, IA and then my turning around point at the High Trestle Bridge which is 2.5 mile short of Jefferson, AI. By the time I reached the bridge I was well over 50 miles and my ass was hurting. My arms and shoulders were a little sore but not too bad. The wind really drained me on the parts that were open trail. This year I have done no fixie or road riding at all. My butt was in no shape for this adventure. That was a major oversight on my part. If not for how much my butt hurt I would have been smiling from ear to ear the entire way. Legs were tired but not dead. My mindset up to the half way point was just to get to that point. I was not thinking of the returnntrip at all. No matter how much I was hurting getting there meant one thing, I was half way and I would reach my goal off 100 no matter what. After all, I had to turn around and ride back. Calling my wife for a ride was considered utter defeat. Most importantly I would have a tail wind to push me the entire ride. It took me 6 hours to do about 57 miles on my fixie. No speed record were set this day. So I rested a bit and ate then jumped back on the bike and headed back the way I came.

Did I mention that by butt was hurting? I can’t say the last time I was in that much pain. At times it was excruciating. I found myself taking more breaks at in the towns and I stopped in Panora for a pizza and Mountain Dew. It tasted so good! Not counting the time it took to stop for pizza I made it back home in 5 hours and I stopped a lot to try and get some blood back into my butt.

In the end it was about 115 miles and took me 12 hours to do. 12 hours of nothing but me on my bike with a few people passing by. No real conversation except 5 minutes I stopped to talk to Elaine outside of Linden.

Here is the rout from Google Maps in a screen shot. Distance from my house to the bridge outside of Jefferson, IA is 56.2. Round trip I hit 115 miles which is the farthest I have ever rode any bike in a single day. Here is a link to the Google Map of the rout.

I am just happy it did not rain. I was ill prepared for the elements. Had I gotten wet I would have had to call for a ride and admitted defeat. When I did get home I was hurting bad, really bad. I could hardly get up off the floor once I crashed and that was 10 minutes after I walked in the door. Right before I showered I was starting to shake uncontrollably. I cranked up the shower as hot as I could take it and just sat there. After that I watched the new Doctor Who with Noah and drifted off to a dreamless night of slumber.

Today I don’t have any major pains. Just an overwhelming wore out feeling. I am thinking of taking Monday off. Who knows, maybe a good ride will help some of the stiffness. I do know I want to ride this rout again in the summer with little or no wind. If I can go 10 hours I’d be happy.

I’ll post photos soon. I’ll try to map them to a Google map to show location.

This is the start of a 120” Seymour AT screen.

This is what I used to secure the 1x4s together.

1×4 poplar. 3 11′ long each

This is how I will attach the corners of the wood.

After cutting to length 2@112” and 2@59” I placed them in the living room and had my son and one of our dogs pose. Looks pretty darn big!

Sorry but no velvet stapling photos. I was in a hurry. I am just about ready to put metal brackets on the corners in this photo.

And that is where I stopped taking photos. By this time I had a nice blister on my hand between the thumb and the pointer finger from all the velvet stapling. Little did I know that I would be doing lots more stapling when it came to the screen material. Except this time I would be taking a bunch out and putting them back in when I put the screen material on the frame. It took me much longer than I expected to attach the Seymour AT material to the wood frame.

More photos soon of the finished product.