Headquarters for the Slender Fungus Cycling Association

Headquarters for the Slender Fungus Cycling Association
Brewers of Hardy Rides.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Remembering the Fruit Loop 2012

It was a while back that the Slender Fungus had the idea of doing a bone breaking ride through out the upper northwest corner of IL. We all congregated at my previous address in Sycamore IL and we departed heading westbound at 4 am sharp. I was lucky to have a bunch of good friends along and also my Son and Daughter. We saw the sun come out and then the relentless heat that beat us down all day. Some riders peeled off and ended the day with long distances and tiredness. My Son and daugther made it to Savanna. Cookie, Paul, B.B.., The Llama, Self made it to Galena, had some much needed food and lots of liquids. By then I had been cramping for about 6 hours. The hills around the Galena area turned our legs to hamburger meat. We arrived at our most northern point almost to Wisconsin. We came down and rode through Apple River Canyon in the dark. We had route 78 to ourselves since the torrential rains had washed most of the road to pieces. Paul was becoming delirious before we hit Mt. Carroll. He was picked up by his lovely significant other around midnight. The Llama fell asleep on a picknic bench at t DQ. He later re-located and spent the night in a display Shed at the hardware store on the corner of rte 64 and 78. Cookie, BB and I departed Mt. Carroll with still a very long way to go til home. We arrived at Mt. Morris and hit the gas station for weak coffee. We then rode through Oregon. We continued in the middle of the night on 64 stopping every so often for a break.
We arrived home around 630 am and completed exhausted. The rest is history. We rode around 260 miles and loved every minute of it.
Good Memories.

Fruit loop. Daughter, cookie, bonk king, son, bb


Son, bb, llama down a beautiful gravel road.


taking a break and trying to cool off.


one of my favorite photos of all time. We are so small compared to nature.


Son and daughter. Son on Fargo, daughter on Croscheck. They had a great day with 90 miles.


The LLama, rode a tall gear all day.


Another heat break. It was almost 100 degrees and very humid that day.


The Llama sleeping on a table.


Cookie reaching exhaustion point in Mt. Morris IL. We still had around 45 miles to go.

Heading home in complet darkness. B.B rode strong all day. I died a million times and kept coming back for more.
Ari

6 comments:

Jay said...

Ive gotten so hairy

Guitar Ted said...

That looked like an epic time. You can't buy memories or even drugs that are that good.

Anonymous said...

An epic ride with great guys! I have yet to top that day in distance, suffering or fun! I can still see you all rolling out of the sunrise to meet me in Polo. You, Jay and Chad descending that washed out 'B' road/cattle path with technical prowess. Erics numerous ways of saying "Car Back!" Making me laugh every time. My rear brake locking up at 30 mph!! The washed out trailer, the fence that Jesus built:) lol! My amazement in seeing the Slender Fungus turn on when the sun goes down:) --Paul

Anonymous said...

Hey Ari:
Do you still have the same e-mail? I need to ask you a question
Tomás

Eric said...

Unforgettable. Must repeat some time.

Francesca said...

This looks like a really good adventure! Best part seems to be the awesome group of people that shared this experience! Thanks for sharing you gave me the inspiration to do something similar with my group of friends!