COLD AND ALONE IN THE DEATH ZONE

This is the face of someone thinking: what the fuck am I doing here?

So it wasn't that cold, but yeah it was a ride for one. I don't blame anybody. It was below 20 by the time I rolled in, and it was slippery but as Woody Allen said when asked about his compulsive masturbation, all I can say is, "at least it was with somebody I love."

One bike. One car. One idiot. Me.

This was my best shot of the night: my own breath! You could almost grab it out of thin air.

Speaking of thin air, BK Dave wanted last night's route so we could meet up in the dark of night, but I wasn't able to post it in time. Here it is (above). Yeah it was in the death zone. Camp 4 is where the Honey Creek is located.

So I headed out. This shot was the worst. I took my hand out of my glove to snap it and my fingers instantly froze. The rest of the night I learned how to operate the camera with gloves on. That's why all the photos suck.

One road down, more to go. I kept riding. Not feeling too bad, really.

Still not feeling too bad at Gavin Lake.

Yeah, there's was this guy with me on the ride. Who is he? Things get crazy in the death zone. High-altitude and lack of beer, I mean air and ...

... then I was at Corrigan and 7 mile. No problem! I kept riding on. Fingers and toes were okay at this point. The road was a little slippery, but I was upright. Sorry I didn't have a Power Meter, I could really bore the shit out of you with my wattage, or lack of wattage, outputs ... yeah, I'm a machine. If by machine you mean Pez Dispenser.

But I just kept rolling.

It was so cold at this point, the Murray Lake sign keeled over. Man, that's cold.

You guessed it, I kept riding. Hmmmm. How long is this crap going to last?

Suddenly I found myself at 8 mile. This guy was writing something on his hand. I think it said "Order the Fried Asian Carp at the Creek, I hear it's really flippin' good!" I wondered how I had gotten to 8 mile by riding south. More death zone shenagins, I guess.

So I kept riding until ...

I met these guys and decided to head for home.

I'm looking scared now, aren't I?

I rode directly to the Creek, not bothering to change or get the car. I had done about and hour and a half. Wish I had a power meter so I could tell you about my amazing wattage. Shucks. First thing I saw when I entered the creek was this lovely couple: George and Katie. Katie saw me and hurled. Nice girl.

But she warmed up and so did my camera after a couple Guiness. Yeah, my camera drinks. After finishing those off it was back on the bike and back to the car. Guess who was waiting for me there ....

Yeah these dudes again. And they looked hungry. If I only had some Fried Asian Carp leftovers I would have been cool. All I had those was this Sven Nys telephone commercial. They liked it. Maybe you will too.