Verboort Populaire 2008

First, it is ALL about the sausage :-)



That said, the weather was OUTSTANDING! Last year it poured the whole time. What a contrast.

I collected Beth at the Sunset Transit Center, then Jason from his house, and we arrived with plenty of time to visit with everyone. Much admiring of Lesli's and Beth's new rides (Rivendells, naturally :-) ) I must say, Lesli's tires look really new and clean.







Cecil and I had talked it up with the Team Bag Balm crowd, so there was a nice showing there, all in herdwear.

Jason and I placed our take-home sausage orders with Barbara O (thank you!), and then headed out, slightly behind everyone else.

I passed through a group on Cornelius-Schefflin; Diane and Jason had zipped on ahead. We arrived at Longbottom's in no time at all, it seemed. Got my card signed; hung around a brief bit, then took off with Diane and Jason. We kept wondering when the Velo would find us. Sort of like looking for the posse in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

As we approached the next control, we could see them approaching from behind - ziiip! swooooosh! zoooooom! and the Hammer and Nails group was gone. Us randos stood around, discussed the correct answer to the info control ("one double door? two doors"), and traded use of the pencil for a small candy bar, and socialized some more.





Then off toward Shadybrook, North Plains, then Mountaindale, and the staffed control (food!) at the end of the Dairy Creek/Fern Flat out-and-back. Joel and I talked about his PBP experience and Schmidt SON dynohubs. I had a nice companionable ride on the out -long conversation with Lesli, then Ray. The scenery was fall-perfect; helped to take my mind off that I really was climbing the whole time, and working hard to keep going with everyone else.

Then the control, with Andrew, Susan, Fritos, getting my card signed, two muffins, and refilling my water bottle. And putting on some chemical toe warmers; feet were getting cold. Visited with Tim, in his nifty new Bike Gallery wool jersey.

Then back out, downhill most of the way. The sun was shining, and I was starting to warm up. Diane, Jason and I pulled over at the Mountaindale Store to do a clothing adjustment - I switched from a jacket to a vest, took off my wool cap, and changed to a less-warm glove configuration. Jack and Amy (on Jack's Jack Taylor tandem) stopped to chat for a bit. I finally started taking pictures here.





Then west some more, crossing Hwy 26 at Frogger Junction, west some more, north to Banks, west on Cedar Canyon, past the fall foliage, wetlands full of geese, the big hill covered with geese, and the turn onto Jack Rd and then Hwy 6. Up Stafford, then onto Strohmayer, where Diane and I needed to take lots more pictures of the sun coming through the fall leaves in the plum orchard, and the haze over the hills and... Jason said he'd wait for us at Love's Barn, and took off.







More pictures there :-)



Then east on Kemper/Osterman, and finally arriving at Verboort. Cecil greeted us and pointed us to the official end control. We checked in, then went to wait in line for our sausage dinner. The line was really long. Last year we just walked up. Shows you what excellent weather can do. After waiting for 30 minutes (we DID stretch), with a long wait still looming, I noticed a fellow Portland Velo member almost ready to get to place his order at the drive-up window. I quickly got money from Jason and Diane, and drove through with him. Five minutes later, I had our dinners in hand :-)

We walked back around to the control, where we happily stuffed ourselves full. Then we got our sausage orders from the cooler, and coasted back to the Grand Lodge.

Diane went home; Jason and I had our post-ride soak in the hot pool. Soaked a bit, stretched in the pool, soaked some more, then we headed out. Found Beth in the parking lot, so she had a ride back to the MAX with us.

Came home, invited my parents to dinner, and cooked more sausage...