I try to get in at least one long-ish bike ride every year. Last summer I rode a 100-mile loop down to Wapello and back. It was fun, but I ran into some bad weather on the way home and got pretty soaked. It was sunny and warm by the time I got home, though.
This year I decided to get some friends together and ride to the Amana Colonies for Oktoberfest. Round trip is 60 miles, and the route goes through some really pretty countryside. The best part, of course, is the artisanal beer waiting once you get to the Millstream Brewery in Amana.
The ride started out looking pretty bleak. Lots of clouds and a little rain just as we departed Iowa City, but by the time we got a couple miles outside of town, the rain stopped and held off for the rest of the ride. Fittingly enough, the clouds even broke just as we got to Amana, so we were able to sit outside under the hops trellis and enjoy a couple pitchers of the brewery’s fantastic Dopplebock. In fact our small group got the last couple pitchers from the last Dopplebock keg, which made it even sweeter. By the time we left, Millstream had also run out of their Oktoberfest brew; that was our sign that it was probably time to leave.
While we drank and ate the wind picked up strongly out of the southwest. Fortunately, our route home was predominantly to the southeast, but there’s an uphill stretch leaving Amana that was straight into the wind, and it was miserable. I pulled the group for the first seven miles on the way home, and it pretty much wiped me out. My legs are still a bit sore today, although the ride to work wasn’t so bad this morning.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to get in another ride like that before the snow falls, but it would be nice. This weekend we’re off to Madison to visit Rachel and Kevin, which is a trip I’ve really been looking forward to. Among other things, I need to replenish my New Glarus supply.