Pactour Day 23 "Scary Metal Things"

Today the first rest stop was at mile 34 (1%'er) so we stopped at a rest area to pee at mile 25.  On the way back to our route we saw the Smallest Church in Ohio.  Not sure what the significance is, but there you are.

For Doug Foxworth, our favorite Top Fuel Guy on the circuit.  Drag Strip Road (sorry for picture quality, rode for the first 2 hours in rain...)  Before we left Ohio

After we were in West VA.  For Chris Lutz, our favorite lead singer of famed band "Snowbyrd."

We reached our penultimate state mid morning.  Fortunately Lon had chosen a day West VA was Open, apparently it is not always?  Since we are in  West VA we were concerned that the boys may have their first sex (that we know of anyways) and not necessarily with girls...  

We rode 50 miles on the RAAM (Race Across AMerica) route today.  It saved the crew from painting "P's" on the road.  It may be a tribute to Kurt the Triathlete, who is the only rider actually racing RAAM (perhaps John Cramer is also?) on the trip.  The rest seem to be riding Pactour!!!!  Kurt had to sit in the penalty box today at the 2nd rest stop to wait for the next rider, he was outrunning the crew support....  

Some beautiful flowers in the median of the West VA state road we were riding this am.

The famly kicked A__ today.  157 miles with 8000 feet of climbing all together.  This brings the boys to 3 consecutive complete rides.  We went from Athens, OH to our Penultimate state (West Virginia) to overnight in Elkins.

The morning started 30 minutes earlier (ie riding at 6:30) in the dark in the rain.  We discovered Lon's Kryptonite today - Born Muscle Up Leg Oil.  Terri and Jim were putting on their leg oils which have a unique smell of camphor or wintergreen or something.  Lon walked down the hallway and almost choked.  We noticed his reaction and pointed it out to him and, we got a smile (which is high score for the Big Dark German.)

We rode for 20 miles on beautiful rolling wooded roads leaving Ohio which was very cool (and rainy.)  We then rode for 20 miles on a Ohio State Road billed on the cue sheet as "Good Shoulder" which had some cracks, and lots of rocks, glass, wood and other debris.  We rode a simliar road for the last 40 miles towards Elkins on a West VA State Road.  It was not marked as "Good Shoulder" but we think that was implied especially since it was continuously marked as a "Bike Route!"  We think "Good Shoulder" means Good for Pactour tire selling business.  We saw numerous flats and riders changing cut up tires.  Our friends the Aussies for example had 9 flats (9 Times Mr. Bueller, 9 Times) and cut up 2 tires.  They ended up the ride in some nice passerby's pick-up truck.

Besides the 2 rough sections of roads the ride was really cool.  Lots of 1/2 - 2 mile climbs and descents.  We rode gently thru the day having alot of laughs.  The rain was a bit tricky in the am, but kept it cool.  The day stayed cloudy so we never got to the projected 101 heat index I believe.

After lunch we rode the coolest, quite rolling road thru West Va.  We rode along a very brown river or creek, which we called a chocolate creek, and saw a couple of cows standing in it so we have figured out where Milk Chocolate comes from!  See, nothing is really magic, everything has a logical explanation.

We turned onto the State route towards Elkins and Will's Rear shifter cable broke.  So, as a little Lon minion, he now got to ride the last 45 miles on a single speed, like Lon (actually a double speed since he could shift his front derailleur.  We were able to get him into the 15 tooth cog for this (the 17 or 18 is actually ideal, but the 15 turns out pretty good since he is running Compact Gearing - another kudo for compact gearing.)  No complaints, he rode with Courage and did have some back spasms toward the end from so much standing on the climbs.  Jim gave him a little push here and there, and massaged his back while doing this, to boot, so all ended well and we fixed the cable when we got in.

Tomorrow is 108 miles with 11,000 feet of climbing.  The boys have already decided they are happy to cut off 50 miles from todays ride at the cost of 3000 extra feet of climbing.  We'll see.

Thanx for reading.  The Slauson's

WARNING if you are scared of Scary Metal Things (ScaryMetalThing Phobia) do not read below OR LOOK AT THE PICTURES....

This is the bike rack we use at all stops on Pactour.  Built by Lon.  Metal plumbing pole with pickup truck bedliner finish and 2 wooden supports.

At the far end of each pole, supporting the pole is the "Scary Metal Thing."  It looks innocuous enough and I don't think a Pactourian afflicted with "ScaryMetalThing Phobia" is even aware he/she has it.

If  riders place the bike toward the very end of the rack (on both sides) - with 1 handlebar on the Scary Metal Thing - There is room for 6 bikes on each rack.  Because of ScaryMetalThing Phobia 9/10 Pactourians don't do this leaving room for only 5 bikes on the rack.  Simple math, if there are 4 racks out at a rest stop, there are room for 24 bikes.  Because of ScaryMetalThing Phobia there are only 20 bikes on the racks when full, and when the Slausons roll in (ie last) there is no room for our bikes so we lean them somewhere.  We are not offended by this but it took a few weeks to determine the underlying (not the obvious) cause of limited bike parking space.

Here's an example of ScaryMetalThing Phobia.  The Pactourian on the left is afflicted by it, on the right (JW's bike) is not.  You can see how ScaryMetalThing Phobia at each end will reducebike parking space by 1 bike per rack.

An example of Pactourians without ScaryMetalThing Phobia - Terri on the Left, Will on the Right.  

Now we are not singling any PacTourians out, we've even noticed Lon is afflicted by ScaryMetalThing Phobia and he made the racks for crying out loud.  Just a new clinical affliction noticed by the Slauson Family on Pactour and maybe by raising awareness we can help its victims!