GITAP week

Just tried this once, and hit the laptop mouse controls wrong and lost everything :eek: :mad:
Just finished a week of "Grand Illinois Trails and Parks." Not Wales (beautiful pics!!!!), no double centuries... but TONS OF FUN. Highlights:
A. Good company is precious! I LOVE MEN. Education (my job) is female-dominated; this ride was mostly older guys. (Average age only 52 this year, but a 3 and a 9 year old skewed it a bit.) Easy to get along with and they're the ones that have to wait in line for the bathrooms. And the guy I went with was really good company... made sure my flapping straps didn't throw me off my bike, and ... well, it was just FUN and DELICIOUS.
B. My butt thanked me all day Friday and Saturday for riding the big ol' Xtracycle, though the rest of me really wanted the Trek with the fast wheels on some of those sweet rolling hills and the 5 miles on the smooth road with the 25 mph tailwind!!!
C. My ego thanked me Tuesday after the Xtracycle made it up the Galena Hills including a 15% grade. I might have stopped... but on both of the biggest hills, the danged SAG wagon came by and weren't no way I would get off and walk just as they were going by. (No, I didn't have the groceries in the back - I even took off my hokeyspokes to lighten up to only 40-45 pounds or so...)
D. TAKE THE LANE. THat'll be its own blogness, but YES, when it's most intuitive to hug the white line - fast traffic, two lanes - it makes the most difference to swing out and ride the invisible "wheel line" instead. Suddenly the drivers aren't morons who are riding right up your butt and then squeezing by at inordinate speed. They're slowing down and waiting, and going 'way over into the other lane to pass. I don't think it applies to my commuting as a whole (our lanes are a little wider, the cars going slower, less traffic or so much more that they'd never get a chance to pass) but it was amazing.
E> I love being in shape again!!! PLanning how to make sure I can get in as many 40 mile days as I can this week... and riding the light bike tomorrow - the one wiht the computer that works so I'll know how fast I'm going :-)

YEA Sue! It sounds great. What was the route? How long? L.

Sunday would have been 35 or 55 but I was doing the refreshment stop. Monday was 63, tues 71 with hills, wed 65 but I did rest stop
thurs 100, fri 72, sat 66. Most days had two possible mileages and I usually (but not always) did the extra.

Oh, and the blender was a big hit :-)