Day 32: "Smooth as a Baby's Behind"

"Smooth as a baby's behind" is a phrase I first heard from my painting boss (35 years ago) to describe how he wanted the wood to feel after I was done sanding it. The words popped into my mind as I rode the 96 miles from McCook to Minden. The metaphor does not describe my skin or my style; it describes the shoulder of the Nebraska Highway on which we rode for 95 miles. My painting boss would have loved the tar finish of US-34!

The ride didn't start that way. As we were leaving McCook I started to get an attitude about the deep cracks in the shoulder. The state police want us to ride on the shoulder when possible. After a couple of miles of hands, arm, butt, and bike jarring bumps I resolved that I was not going to ride like that all day, not with a much smoother road a rumble strip and white line away. I prepared my argument, if a policeman stopped me (as happened to a fellow rider). "Officer, I would love to ride on the shoulder, but those cracks are doing great bodily harm." I hoped he might by Lutheran and would be moved by a sincere, "Here I ride; I can do no otherwise."

And then a few miles out of McCook the road changed-new tar-miles and miles of new tar-60 miles of new tar!-not so new as to be sticky-just new enough to be consistently smooth.
My whole body appreciated the efforts of the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

As if that were not blessing enough, we rode most of the 96 miles with a TAIL WIND. "Gloria in excelsis Deo!" The smooth roads and persistent wind made it much easier to go up and down the Nebraska hills, and there were a lot of hills. I fell into a routine-grind up the hill and coast down the other side. About the time I started getting weary of the hills, they ended. The last 30 miles was all slightly downhill with the wind at our backs. Can it get any better?

I can only smile when I think about how tired I was last night and this morning. "Another 90 plus mile day" I groaned. And then it turns into a great riding day. "Praise God from whom all smooth roads and tailwinds flow."