Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: bike

Today was unbearable hot. With incredible humidity. And very strong winds.
So what better day to go for a really long bike ride!? Like a hundred mile bike ride?!

Well, today was the Bike Psychos Century which started in Coal City in central
Illinois down by Kankakee. The ride started out pretty nice – good weather, cool breeze
and a relaxing rest stop early on for “breakfast.” Chris and I stopped off for a quick bite
and to refill our water bottles… unbeknownst of what lies ahead…

As the ride progressed, it got a lot windier… and a lot hotter! I would venture to say that
it easily went over a hundred degrees in the heat of the day! And the humidity was a killer.
Sweat was running down my face, okay, my whole body! I had to stop a couple times just to
wipe the sweat out of my eyes! And to make it even tougher, the wind as whipping across
the country farm fields. It felt like a headwind the entire time… exhausting! At the halfway
point, our rest stop was at Matthiessen State Park (very near Starved Rock State park).
It’s a beautiful park with a beautiful river gorge  & rock formations. I hate to say it… but
we were just too hot, sweaty & exhausted to even walk down to see it. Instead we were
focused on drinking one bottle after another of water & Gatorade. It seemed impossible to
keep the fluids in… as I was sweating them out faster than I could swallow!!! Still…
another wonderful ride, albeit a little more exhausting than most Century rides!!!

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