WILD GOOSE GRAVEL GRINDER - Sumner, MO
Loved this event! It's a 3 hour drive from home so we spent the night in Marceline, MO, (no hotels any closer than a 20 minute drive). It was 34 degrees at the start. Realized when Steve and I were gearing up that I'd forgotten my gloves, so borrowed a pair from him which worked out just fine, even if my hands were swimming in the gloves.

This gravel ride (we did the ride, not the 80 mile race) had a fun twist in that there were "Swag stops" scattered around the course. Over the course of the ride, we collected:
Stop 1 - hand sanitizer. They had little stroopwaffles with peanut butter, and Bailey's Irish Cream shots (we did not partake)
Stop 2 - Little fork and spoon sets meant for camping. Super cute. They had vodka shots. Again, we didn't bite.
Stop 3 - In the town of Brunswick -- you posed on a little zebra print chaise (copying Salsa Bike's "chase the chaise") and had your picture taken. They then gave out bandannas with the race logo on them. Oh, and the chaise is set up in front of a gigantic statue of a pecan, hence the "World's Largest Pecan". There was a coffee shop open where you could hit the restroom and get a cup of coffee.
Stop 4 - Swag was a cuzie (sp?) cup. I had a Slim Jim at this stop.
Stop 5 - Swag was a large button with the race logo on it that double as a bottle opener. A volunteer was cooking bacon over a campfire and we ate our share.

Beautiful course withe just enough climbing (2200 feet) to keep things interesting. There was a bit of a headwind from the NE.
At mile 28, my Garmin, which has been dying a slow death, went completely blank and nothing would bring it back on. I'm usually the navigator, so this was worrisome. We were riding with a guy from O'Fallon, MO, and a girl on a beautiful All City bike. Things went well until we made a left turn when we should have gone straight. To be fair, it did look like going straight would have put us in someone's driveway, but All City girl and I both felt it was not the right thing to do, but she had no navigation either.

After a couple of miles, we somehow ended up at a crossroads where 2 other 50 mile guys and a guy from Kansas City who was doing the 80 and had gotten hopelessly lost all convened. We ended up riding aimlessly through the country with this group until All City girl pulled the route up on her phone. She and I decided we could pick the course up again if we backtracked a bit. This worked out well and eventually we were back in business and rode the rest of the course with the KC guy.

Afterwards we changed in the van and then walked up to the town's Wild Goose Festival, where we knew one of the vendors. Visited with them a bit and then got some BBQ from a food truck and headed home.

On the way home, we stopped in Marceline and did a quick tour of Walt Disney's boyhood home museum. Really, really nice museum that gave a look at Disney's life on the farm when he was quite young.

Got home about 7. I'm pretty sore and tired, but in a good way.

Another busy day ahead of me with a proposal deadline. The manager I'm working with on this one is one of those nervous, chronically stressed out types and I find myself being very careful with my tone of voice when talking to him. It's going ok but i hope this guy finds ways to unwind and destress. I've been getting emails with crazy time stamps (like 2 a.m., etc.).

Going to skip the last couple days of Focus Alpha Phase and start the Beta Phase --- I think this new phase incorporates some weights.

Brunch at my mom's and then we have dinner tonight with some snowbird friends who are headed for Florida later this week.

Busy day at work ahead of me, and it's turned cold, dark and rainy so any workouts will need to be indoors. This weather makes me want to just curl up with a blanket and nap all day.