We have been attending some of the local, regional century rides and have had a good time. We teamed up with Bob Crook to go to both the Murfreesboro HOT 100 on Aug. 24, and the Huntsville Century on Sept 15th.

H.O.T. 100: The ride options on the HOT 100 were 31, 62, and 100. We thought the 31 was too short and 62 too long, so I looked at the map and picked a road to cut across their long narrow loop and give us about 50 miles. It turned out that this route was more of trail than a road, with 2 creek fords (dry), a hill we had to push up which was so steep on the backside that neither of us could stop. Fortunately we were going slowly. When we finally got stopped at the bottom, our rims were too hot to touch. So I guess in the end we expended as much energy as if we had ridden the 62.

Huntsville Century: The Huntsville club had a 50 mile option that was what we were looking for. It rained on us at the beginning, but not enough to wet the road. The wind was at our backs, and I hoped that it would die down, but it blew all day long, and the back 25 miles were very tough. We were all worn out, but luckily, at the end, the route turned back west and the wind was at our backs.

For those of you trying to find new century rides to attend next year, each of these are good choices. Each has a post-ride meal, where we enjoyed talking with folks we see year after year. – Stuart Coulter reporting