January 14, 2016

Random Rando

Late Saturday afternoon, I put on my jeans and rode my antique three speed over to the grocery store in Woodstock.  After shopping, I drove my cart out to the bike rack and transferred the panniers onto the bike before unlocking.  My receipt flapped away at the bottom of the cart and I left it.

A tall gentleman in Castelli knickers walked up to the rack, almost tripping over my front wheel.  He locked up his road bike, with its Brooks saddle and randonneur-style bag, and swiftly scooped my receipt out of the cart.  I marveled at how interested he appeared to be in this little piece of paper that revealed nothing more than how much I like expensive chocolate. 

"Oh, you've found my receipt.  Is there anything of interest on it?".  He looked up and told me he'd just finished the ride.  I am used to strangers finding me familiar, as I believe it's one of my overriding qualities, but he actually knew my name.  "The ride?" I asked.

Turns out, this was the chap who had requested to ride my permanent route, the PAP or Portland-Aumsville-Portland.  He was looking at the receipt because he thought he might use it as control proof instead of going into the store. 

He looked fresh as a daisy but insisted it had been a hard nine hour day.  My best 200k time is ten hours.  We chatted about the route, which he said was a nice easy choice for winter, and then we went our separate ways.