I was supposed to be in the middle of a bit of a vacation that would have put me in my hometown right now. And this weekend was supposed to be me riding the Door County Century (the DCC) with my brother and friends I have known for more than 50 years.
That didn’t happen, and I think someday soon I’ll put something up here about what I think about the reasons it didn’t.
But I’m writing this instead as a bit of celebration for having gone ahead and done a century — a little over 101 miles actually — anyway. And I’ve called it “Not the Door County Century.”
I love cycling in Korea. There’s just so much to see, and so many variations on routes. I can always find some miles I’ve never travelled on just about any ride. Even the short ones. That’s what you get when you have so many little rice paddy and farm roads to choose from.
But it would’ve been nice to see Door County. It’s Wisconsin famous…and probably more (those Chicago people…). I went to its Lake Michigan coast with my older brother a few years ago and loved it…in the middle of the winter. But it’s been since childhood that I’ve actually been there in any of the other seasons. This would have been a welcome change.
But it didn’t happen, so I had to settle for some pretty cool sights in Korea. And I had to get in 100 miles worth of them too, just to make it official. Couldn’t do it at the same time as the actual DCC — that would’ve had me on the road during the early morning hours of next Monday. But I can at least say I put in the work, and at almost the same time. The rice is coming in nicely, and my favorite time of year is approaching. Can’t say that getting out there in any circumstance is a losing scenario (although today was quite warm by the end of the ride).
But I had to make up for it. So Joon and I started out at about 0430, and we picked up Lisa about 20 minutes later (I designed the route to pass her house to pick her up and then to drop her off at about mile 75). And although she wasn’t really feeling up to it…none of us were, really (Joon and I were feeling a bit thick in the sinus)…she stuck it out for the whole portion I’d designed for her, and we left her with 22 miles left ourselves.
So yeah. It turned out to be a pretty good day anyway…even the part where I got hit.