My First 600k  (Brenda Barnell, May 04)

Yes, I rode my first 375 miles this past weekend in the Mineral Wells area. Let me assure you that Texas is not a flat state, especially in the Mineral Wells area!! To give you a recap of my experience, we rolled out of the hotel parking lot at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and a journey that I knew would take me a while. I thought to myself that I needed to be patience, enjoy the ride and the fabulous company of those around me. (Thanks, Bill, Rani, Ronnie and Edward) After riding through Palo Pinto we headed south on FM 4 which has the infamous Cherry Pie Hill. Wow, going down that hill is amazing and much better than climbing it! For those of you who have never climbed that hill, it makes Flag Pole Hill in Dallas seem like an ant hill. We made our journey through our control points in Lipan, Glen Rose and Cranfills Gap. At this point we are at 117 miles into the ride. I asked Bill what time it is was and he says it's 4:30 p.m. How time flies and I remember him telling me that Cranfills Gap is our half way point for the day. Wow, almost there, I thought. I grabbed a burrito, refilled my water bottles/camelback and jumped back on the bikes making our way towards Dublin. What a nice ride to Dublin, the roads were smooth and we had a wonderful tailwind to push us into the town. Can't leave Dublin without a Dr. Pepper so I grabbed one along with another burrito and we prepared ourselves for the evening with lights and reflective gear. 

Off we went, onto the next control point which was at I-20 and FM 919 (near Gordon). That section between Dublin and Gordon was absolute beautiful. The sun was starting to go down and there are several dairy farms along the way. Talk about bringing back childhood memories. I was raised on a farm in Nebraska, showed cattle and we used to have dairy cattle too. So as we traveled along those country roads I was doing my best to keep my eyes on the road as I was watching the sunset, looking over the countryside and admiring the beautiful wildflowers in the road ditches. Not to mention all the dairy cattle on both sides of the road too. We made our way to the truck stop off of I-20, with one minor stop along the way when we approached Rick and Dan (Kayo's friend) standing near the road ditch.  Won't go into details....something about an injured calf.

We left the truck stop with Rick in tow and on our way to the hotel in Mineral Wells. As we were nearing Highway 180 we began to climb up a huge hill. As I questioned Bill about this, "Are you sure we aren't climbing Cherry Pie Hill?" His comment was, "No". So as I'm slowly turning the pedals, thinking to myself, "Boy I'm glad it's dark and I can't see how bad this hill is" and second guessing Bill the whole time. He's been known to tell me that we've had 10 miles to the control but really it's 20 miles. ;-) So my doubts are there and I'm trying to visualize our route map in my head that I looked at the night before. No, I guess Bill is right, this isn't Cherry Pie Hill but it sure must be some other "fruit pie hill" because it was tough! Not to mention 200 miles of peddling are already on the legs.

We finally reached Hwy. 180 which will take us into Mineral Wells when we came across Dan and Diane doing some mechanical work on their tandem. Not by choice, when the chain is broke the bike won't go. Dan was just finishing the repairs so we all made our way through Palo Pinto and into Mineral Wells. As we were heading towards Mineral Wells, lo and behold, on the other side of the highway is Russell K., Mark M. and Todd K. heading out for their "straight through" night ride. Those guys are amazing!

Now it's 12:30 Sunday morning, 227 miles later, a nice hot shower, Italian food that we ordered the night before warmed up in the microwave (great idea Rani/Ronnie) and a couple of hours of sleep (3 to be exact) before our 4:00 a.m. walk up call (thanks Ronnie). Ugh, trying to get up and moving and thinking about sitting on that bike for another 150 miles was a tough thought. I was thinking to myself, "I can do this". It's only 150 miles and I've already ridden 227 miles the day before. Well, everyone (Dan,Diane, Bill, Rick, Rani, Ronnie and myself) are up and ready to roll out of the hotel parking lot 5:30 a.m. peddling away for another days adventure.

Not even 20 miles into this ride, I'm dropping back barely holding onto 10 mph. Knowing that I should be eating/drinking something but I don't want to. I'm thinking to myself, "I need to eat something...the fuel tank is low". The thought of all those miles that I've ridden with Russell and him telling me to eat/drink is going through my head. At this point, Bill mentioned to me to take a gue. Oh, I have one of those...great idea. Wow, that's what I needed, it got the body going and I was picking up speed and had the appetite to start eating my peanut butter sandwich.

We made our way to the control point in Caddo, noticed that Rani must have been there because the little black cat that was sitting on the front step of the closed gas station was eating a piece of peanut butter sandwich too.  Bill and I jump back on the bikes to the next control point which is the ghost town of Eliasville. Ghost town or it was too early in the morning for the town to start stirring (I never wear a watch when I'm riding so I have no idea what time it is). At this point we run into Dan and Diane again. Dan is finishing up the repairs of a spoke. They are off to the next control and Bill and I are somewhat behind them. 30 miles down the road and we'll be at our next control which is Graham. At this point my right knee is starting to hurt a little and thought I should have brought that roll of athletic tape along with me and taped up my whole body at this point. Mark M. was kind enough to show me how to wrap the achilles tendon the day before so it wouldn't hurt anymore. (Great job, Mark...it worked!)

The dead snakes that I saw on the roads were giving me the willies. Thank goodness, Bill decides to tell me a mile down the road that he saw a live rattlesnake sunning himself on the road a while back. Ugh, I can't stand snakes and even though I'm on the bike riding past them I still gets the creeps.

We "finally" (thought I was never going to get there) make our way to Graham. The control point is on the other side of the town that we entered. Dan, I really don't need a scenic view of Graham next time...shortest possible route to the control point would be great! :-)  As I'm barely making my way into the gas station at Graham we run into Dan and Diane getting ready to leave. At this point, I'm seriously thinking that I could call someone to come and get me but it would take all my Dallas buddies over and hour and a half to find me in Graham. My other thought would be that I could take Hwy 377 straight into Mineral Wells but I knew that I couldn't DNF (did not finish) or leave Bill out here by himself after riding all this distance with me.  Unfortunately, I shared my thoughts with Dan and he wasn't going to allow it. He told me that "you can do it and there was no way that I was going to stop now". He was not going to hear it from me. I came this far and I'm almost there...50 miles to go. Dan is right, I can do this. I need that push when I think that I'm at the end of the rope and about ready to throw in the towel. I thought to myself, "o.k. I can do this, it's only 50 miles".  I've ridden 50 miles before so what's another 50 miles. So into the gas station I go, head right over to the burritos (2 this time) and 4 Aleve along with some Gatorade. Bill and I decide that a little break from the bikes would be great, let the food digest and hopefully the next 50 miles won't be that bad. Besides, at this point we're almost done with the 600K and we only have one more control point before I see my car again. A little shut eye on the cement beside the gas station and in the shade is what the doctor ordered. We jumped back on the bikes and headed to the last control point...Whataburger here we come, 30 miles away.

Finally through several miles of climbing again, beautiful scenery, smooth roads and than some "not so" smooth roads (was there 2 miles of that road that didn't have pavement on it?) we arrive at Whataburger. Whew, last stop and now we are almost home! Yeh, I've almost completed this huge goal that I've set for the weekend. I'm not as crazy as I thought I was prior to reaching Graham. After visiting with some of the locals that were in the restaurant and wishing a Grandma "Happy Mother's Day", we are back on the bikes for the last time. Wow, I can't believe it's only 27 more miles to go...only 2 1/2 laps around White Rock Lake and I'm back at the hotel. Bill and I are home free, we finally get off of Hwy 16 which we took out of Graham and turning onto Hwy 180 which will take us through Palo Pinto and into Mineral Wells.  At last, Bill doesn't hear me ask him the same question after this control point as he has heard at the previous stops, "what is the route like to the next control? Is it hilly?" Sorry Bill, I'll try to think of a better question to ask you next time. :-) 

As we're cruising down Hwy 180, I start to laugh and share some thoughts with Bill. I told him, "Ya know, earlier I could see the email that I was going to put out on Monday morning, ""Bike For Sale" or better yet "Bike To Give Away To A Good Home" along with all the accessories. Also in that same email it was going to read: Hey, GDB friends, "if you want to see me, visit with me or ride with me come to the "Easy Going Ride" on Saturday mornings because I'm not going to do anything over 20 miles again". I was also thinking about joining Steve K. at the ministry (remember his April Fools email?).  As we're nearing Palo Pinto, Bill points out the water tower in the city.  "Not far now", he says. Wow, what an accomplishment, I've almost done it...I've almost ridden a 600K....375 miles!!! Bill is so proud of me too and I'm nearly getting choked up about the thought of this huge accomplishment. I can't believe it and we're still within the time limit.  We pulled into the hotel parking lot at 8:00 p.m. and the cut off time was 10:30 p.m. Wow, that was 37.5 hours since we took off on Saturday morning. Five hours off the bike for the night. I did it!!! I just rode 375 miles!

After riding the 600K, I have a whole new respect, admiration and honor for those LSR who did (or plan to do) Paris-Brest-Paris, Boston-Montreal-Boston or any other long distance ride. If the Lone Star Randonneurs weren't so encouraging, helpful, fun to ride with and wonderful individuals I probably wouldn't show up again. But they are great and wonderful people so I'll be out for more rides and ready to "smile" to the finish line again! Dan has a great group of riders and any GDB'ers that would love to come out and ride, support or sag for the LSR we would be more than appreciative to have you. Thank Bill, for sticking with me on all those miles, you're the best.