Sunday, 1/7/07 ride

[SouthernBelle]

Another beautiful non-January day tempted my bike and me. The temperature was 24 degrees colder than yesterday - 44 (Fahrenheit) when I headed out today - but that's still very warm for January (and very easy to dress for!). It was windy again, but with the reasonable temperature the wind didn't cause any comfort problems.

My ride was somewhat shorter today (than yesterday) at 28 miles. Riding, looking around, I saw something that surprised me. I was rolling through a neighborhood not too far from home when I saw a field with two animals - llamas maybe? Funny because it was in a residential area, definitely worth a quick stop for a photo!

Yes those are llamas. I have a regular route past a llama farm and I often stop to try and tempt then to the fence. Only one will come up to me but she won't let me pet her.

[DeniseGoldberg]

Yes those are llamas. I have a regular route past a llama farm and I often stop to try and tempt then to the fence. Only one will come up to me but she won't let me pet her.

Thanks for the confirmation. It's always nice to know when I guess correctly!

[DebW]

I was thinking of getting the baby a helmet, but how does that work. How old does the baby have to be to even fit in a helmet? Any young mom's out there with recommendations? She did register at Babys r Us, so I could also just get her what she says she needs, but at some point I guess they'll need a helmet, right?

Of course they'll need a helmet. Just buy the smallest child's size, which may not fit until the child is 1 or 2. Generally you need to wait until the baby can sit up on his/her own before putting him/her in a trailer, unless they can strap the child's car seat inside.

[PinkBike]

the flier says: "why do we ride 100 miles in january? because we can." DH and i rode the 100 mile Casa Grande Century. it was a little nippy at first, but at the halfway we shed all our outergarments, but then faced headwinds for the whole return. DH flatted once, luckily i was able to boot his tire and put in a new tube and still go on. then it blew out again (tire was trashed!) and he got sagged the last 25 miles, i rode in alone. felt good to get the first century in!!
bad news:
just a few miles into the ride, one of our riders got hit by a car which then sped off. the details are real sketchy, but he was in a small group in the bike lane on the highway which has very light traffic, somehow veered into traffic (maybe hitting the rumble strips in the bike lane), got hit by a car, the car didnt stop and we have only bits of info on the vehicle from another driver who saw and followed the car. the word in the at the sag stops was that he didnt survive. i'm trying to find out the details.
makes ya think, huh?

[Crankin]

SheFly, you ride right by my street! I have probably seen you, I bet going a lot faster than me!

Robyn

[SheFly]

SheFly, you ride right by my street! I have probably seen you, I bet going a lot faster than me!

Robyn

I'll have to keep an eye out for you, Robyn - this is part of my regular loop during the season. I live in Bedford, so am often out in Concord/Carlisle ...

Not ssure about the faster part either - especially yesterday! Got home with a whopping 14.9 mph average speed. My legs were totalled from all the riding this weekend. If you happened to see a tandem in your travels on Saturday (before your mishap), that was DH and I.

SheFly (Cathy)

[five one]

When I added up my 2006 mileage for the Bike Journal 2500 mile challenge, I discovered I rode only trainer miles in Jan and Feb. I don't remember whether the weather was bad or whether I simply didn't get out on the road, but 2007 is shaping up to be a repeat of 2006 .

Next weekend I WILL get out there. In the meantime, it's me in the garage at 5 am with my bike, trainer, and iPod. Not fun, but better than nuthin'.

[SouthernBelle]

This is my friend, Mama Llama, so called because she might be pregnant, or she might be fat. Not sure.

[Fredwina]

just a few miles into the ride, one of our riders got hit by a car which then sped off. the details are real sketchy, but he was in a small group in the bike lane on the highway which has very light traffic, somehow veered into traffic (maybe hitting the rumble strips in the bike lane), got hit by a car, the car didnt stop and we have only bits of info on the vehicle from another driver who saw and followed the car. the word in the at the sag stops was that he didnt survive. i'm trying to find out the details.
makes ya think, huh?

Not good! And I know of a couple of floks who flew out from PA to do the ride. Hope it wasn't one of them!

[Aint Doody]

Denise, I think those are alpacas--sorta look more like giant poodles, don't they?

I rode on Sunday, too. 30 miles in my living room on rollers while watching Inheret the Wind and then 12 Angry Men. I love TCM--no commercials. When I only had 5 miles left, the lactic acid built up. After I got off and took a shower and met some friends to see The Holiday, it finally eased up. Hey, if y'all haven't seen The Holiday yet, don't miss it. It's a great "chick flick."

[tygab]

Yes, those are alpacas, which are much more common these days than llamas.
How to tell?
1. Smaller - alpacas are much shorter than llamas, roughly 2/3rds the size of a full llama
2. Very fuzzy (actually, one of the two kinds is the fuzzy ones, huacayas, and the others have long locks like a weeping willow, those are called suris. Huacayas are much more common).
3. Ears - llama ears are long, and curved. Alpaca ears are short and spear shaped.

It can be hard to tell at a distance. I have a few which live at farms (I don't have the land). There are actually quite a few farms around and getting more common. NE has a lot of them in proportion to the amount of farming done here...

[DeniseGoldberg]

Yes, those are alpacas, which are much more common these days than llamas.
How to tell...

Thanks for the details on how to tell these two apart!

--- Denise

[mtkitchn]

the flier says: "why do we ride 100 miles in january? because we can." DH and i rode the 100 mile Casa Grande Century. it was a little nippy at first, but at the halfway we shed all our outergarments, but then faced headwinds for the whole return. DH flatted once, luckily i was able to boot his tire and put in a new tube and still go on. then it blew out again (tire was trashed!) and he got sagged the last 25 miles, i rode in alone. felt good to get the first century in!!
bad news:
just a few miles into the ride, one of our riders got hit by a car which then sped off. the details are real sketchy, but he was in a small group in the bike lane on the highway which has very light traffic, somehow veered into traffic (maybe hitting the rumble strips in the bike lane), got hit by a car, the car didnt stop and we have only bits of info on the vehicle from another driver who saw and followed the car. the word in the at the sag stops was that he didnt survive. i'm trying to find out the details.
makes ya think, huh?

Laurie,
His name was Larry Harrison, and no, he didn't survive. The fellows I did the metric option with had ridden with him just the day before. I understand he rode over 10000 miles last year. Very sad, indeed.
We got to the scene right after the emergency vehicles, and they had shut down the road so we detoured. On our way back in the afternoon, the road was open and we stopped at the cross somebody had erected for him.
Sue

[Aggie_Ama]

We rode the same ride we did on New Year's Day. The wind was brutual- 15 mph, gusting to 30. I actually got blown of my line twice! It was scary, I felt like I got picked up.

We came down a hill towards those stupid dogs from last week. Since we went the opposite direction, I was coming down hill at 24 mph and was able to blow past them. Last week I was crawling up the hill at 5 mph. <<Note: need to program the Sheriff's phone number in for future run ins with those dogs.>>

We came home for 2 mile, windy and cold run. Today it was 64 and calm winds, but I had to work.