Satruday Gravel

There really is nothing like a sunrise when you're out on gravel. It's simply amazing, seriously. And there's nothing like a gravel ride. Just ask Oly, he seemed to be enjoying it:

We headed out north bound from Casa Oliver, destination was Branched Oak Road and 98th, then Cultiva Coffee at 15th and South. Yeah, kind of a convoluted way of getting there, but whaddya get, right? I was nervous, real nervous and out of sorts - see the last time I was on Branched Oak Road it tried to kill me about a dozen times. There was an amusing moment when we pulled up to Branched Oak and Highway 77, and I pointed out that I had sat on the site of the road with fig newtons and water bottles. "Oh so this was the spot" (where I almost gave up) Oliver mentioned, "This was ONE of the spots.. there's plenty more". Heh. Anyway, Branched Oak was a mental hurdle because, well, it wasn't pleasant at all the last time.

Don't ever let anyone tell you Nebraska is flat...

When we turned onto Branched Oak I had to throw the headphones on, I needed some tunes to get me through the next 7 miles. I was going to go for Led Zeppelin II, but I hit "shuffle" on a whim and the iphonepod threw out some irony - Ozzy's "Road to Nowhere". Hah, so. freaking. appropriate. So I rolled out behind Oly and suffered up and down the hills that almost beat me last year.

There's a strange, sadistic allure of gravel to me. You go up, you come down, you go up, you come down. Branched Oak has some hellacious hills, but the nice thing about it is that it gives you a break on the downhills. Pella Road ain't havin that, you go down, you go right back up. The hills you see in this pic are nice and gradual.. not the mini mountains of Pella.

My memory, of course, could be a bit tainted.

Weather was.. honestly? Kinda brutal! There was/is a 25 mph wind out of the south/southwest today and the temps when we left were already over 80. By the time we hit Cultiva Coffee at around 9:45am, we were at 93 with a heat index of 105. Whew! Heat, Headwinds, Humidity, and Hills.. rock it.

Took Branched Oak to 14th, then decided to take the pavement back into town. Some dang nice views at that time of the morning

The headwind made us pay for every mile of the pavement, I'm tellin' ya. It was hilly, lots of traffic, and lots of wind. But still good. I still cussed, because I said I was going to and I couldn't let Oly down. Seemed like forever, but eventually we were back in town - and shortly after, at Cultiva. Had a cappuccino, which was.. I don't know how to describe it. Phenomenal. Amazing. Etc.

Big thanks to Oly and a guy at work for telling me - repeatedly - to check out Cultiva. I'm not a coffee nut, but I dig a good cup, and this was simply amazing. I bought a thermal mug (which fits perfectly in a bottle cage, btw), and filled it with some of their brewed.. goodness. Man, amazing stuff.

I started out today feeling pretty apprehensive about the upcoming GLGA but now I'm cool. I've got a lot of work to do over the next two weeks, but you know what? It'll be awesome, regardless of the outcome, but I'm goona work on my fist pumps. You know, just in case.

Today was, of course, definitely aided by excellent company. I know many struggle to find riding partners of equal, or even close, capability and route/terrain interest. I lucked out big time in that respect.

That's all I've got. Heck of a great day of riding - and a good week of it coming up, too. GLGA, here I come.