Memorial Day: The Butter Burger Century

You will see Randy's mention of being wimpy by only riding to Gurnee on the hottest Memorial Day in Chicago history.  He is correct about the wimp status.   One of the EBC20mph members (myself) joined the EBC Butter Burger Century (to Pleasant Prairie) to get in some longer miles, and it turned out to be an epic ride. Almost no wrong turns.  It was a good group with no slackers, and the ride up was very quick (20+) with a decent tailwind. Culver's was glorious as usual.  Enjoyed the blackberry sundae with hot fudge on the side.  But then the heat and headwind came down like a hammer on the way home. It was almost laughable.

At Culver's the ineffable Jim Springer joined us and regaled us with his usual bon mots.  His tires are minimum 3" wide, his bike weighs 47 pounds, and his lights probably add another 10.  He had started riding at 3 am and already had completed 140 miles prior to joining us.  Between he and John Chisholm and the pulsingly hot pavement it was quite something.

 

Trish (Lambrecht) was the drug lady, handing out electrolyte pills like candy, and one after another were dropping from the heat….we stopped several times on the way home for more water, root beer, whatever liquid was available.    Everyone hung in there however, and even those who had some trouble lived to tell the tale.  It was a good group that showed no lack of resolve.  I am sorry or glad to say that i don't know the final mph but it was not slow.  There are times when not having a garmin is a good thing.

I love these neverending worlds of pain rides.  Sounds crazy but is true. 

On the ride from the 20 mph group:

Heidi

On the ride from EBC
John (ride leader)

Cliff

Karen

Trish

Jim Heller

Julianne

Dale

Ed Barker