NC Weekend in the Flèche

That long night ride caught up with me today. I fell asleep on the sofa to City Lights and woke up in time to see Charlie getting a flower from the woman he loved. That's a nice place to wake up.

Just back home from a weekend fleche, led by Team Captain Extraordinaire Lynn K. A flawless route that found the very best of back roads on our 230-mile trek through the coastal plain from Petersburg, Virginia to Atlantic Beach, NC. Teammates included Lynn and Gordon on the tandem, Jerry, Maile, Joel "Dr. Pumper" D and yours truly.

Every ride has its themes and stories. If I had to write ours, it would have lotteries and bears. And chickens. And Squawkers. And worms. And dogs. And trailers and wenches.

After a winter where many rides struggled to get above freezing, we deserved the picture perfect, rain-free, sun-soaked day, with highs in the 80s, followed by a rain-free, moon-soaked evening, where the temperatures never dropped below 50, although the air got a little moist just before dawn.

The countryside? Lots of abandoned farmhouses, open fields and swamps swollen from a recent rain. I've seen a lot of North Carolina, but I've never been in the corner of the state we passed through, with towns like Jackson, Seaboard, Roxobel and Kelford and Black Jack and Chicod.

Mechanicals? Nothing major. Joel had two flats. One in the morning, one in the evening.

Physical problems? Maile had knee pain from a stumble last weekend but she soldiered on with the help of Aleve. She said when you have one big pain to focus on you forget about all the little ones.

We were the first of seven teams to roll into the finish, and that meant we were on hand when the other teams rolled in to the finish. The party was on in the Island Inn parking lot, with regional riders from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in on the celebration/ My one regret is that I didn't pull out my camera and get a picture of each team at the finish. But I know you have them, so please send them along and I'll post.

I've lifted several pictures from Maile's Flickr site. You can see the rest of em here.

Other reports: Vance has a ride report here. Maria has one here, and Keith has one here. BobO just added his here.

As other reports pop up, I'll post. If you have a picture of your team, please send em along.

A big congrats to all the first time fleche finishers -- I know of several of those. As always, congrats to Brother Rob. And a big thanks to Team F.E.Z. for a fun 24 hours.

Maile, this one's for you...



And remember, no matter how far you ride, Busty LaRue is watching...