That would be, Clyde, not that frou-frou bike Edwina. I, Clyde, am taking over the blog for this trip and Edwina can just suck it up and accept that for the next two weeks this is my blog, not hers. Phhhhtppp!
First, let me introduce myself. I am Clyde…as in Clydesdale. Like Edwina, I am a custom steel Waterford bike, but there the similarity ends. I was built for commuting and I am tough. No fancy-schmancy Waterford paint job. Nope. Powder-coated in a classic chai-tea color. No delicate 25cc tires either…35mm comfy Rene Herse gum walls. Gravel-ready. Rough road ready. With a smmmoooothhh ride. Add to that fenders and I, unlike that hoity-toity Edwina, am ready to ride me some gravel roads and limestone trails. And, that, friends is where we are headed.
Right now I’m cooling my tires in Chicago’s Union Station and soon, we will hop the train to Kansas City. I have never been on the train before. Edwina got to ride it once before to Denver, but then the riding was all road. Not this time. Edwina can’t handle this trip…she’d being having one princess meltdown after another…..”<whine /> the road is too bumpy…<whine/> the gravel too loose…. <whine /> is that mud?!?!?!?” If we let her on this trip, she would ghost you, dear friends, like she did in Mackinac Island…grrr…so she got a little bit of horse apple on her tires and had to spend the night al fresco. Big deal. But, gee, we never heard the end of her complaints about that night. So…no we left the drama queen at home.
But, me? I am getting to ride! As a commuter, I spent too many years going to work…home from work…to work…home from work…see the pattern? Bored already, too? Sometimes I got to take the long way home from work, but pretty much a limited set of scenery. So an offer to cross the state of Missouri…how could I turn it down?!?!?
Talk to ya in Kansas City!
Travels With Edwina 