Yesterday I was all over the place.  I was trying to secure some auto parts, had an invitation to fly on a B-2 bomber refueling plane and then found out that I’ve been training mostly for nothing.

The day turned out alright though.  Got the parts and installed them.  Pretty rewarding fix. Made it to the base in time to make the orientation meeting and then fly most the way across Kansas and back with 3 B-2 bombers.

But the bummer was that Master’s Cyclocross Worlds in San Jose was cancelled.  I don’t have enough information about it and am a little too riled up about the whole thing, so I’m not going to comment much other than it totally sucked and someone needs to accept the blame and apologize.  I didn’t see anyone doing that yesterday.

The highlight of the day was the special flight on a K-135 refueling jet based here in Topeka. Col. Chuck Remboldt is a commander at the 190th here in Topeka and also a super enthusiastic cyclist.  He got together a bunch of guys from the area, mostly bike race associated people and took us up on one of their training flights.  It took a few hours, but was well worth the time.

I’m not that much into the military, I have to say.  But after hanging out with these guys, it made me rethink some of my beliefs about the military.  The guys that are responsible for these jets are some of the most competent people I’ve met.  They take their jobs very seriously, but have lots of extra time to explain what they are doing to us.  Pretty down to earth folks.

We flew over near Dodge City and back, meeting up with 3 B-2 bombers and refueled them. They practice this all the time when they aren’t deployed in the middle east or elsewhere.   The guys doing this are the guys that you’d want to do it.  I had never taken this into consideration much.  It wasn’t much like flying a commercial airline.  You could walk around, go into the cockpit or down to the refueling pod at the back of the plane.  Pretty generally do just about anything you want.

There are only 20 B-2 bombers in existence now.  And any number of them might be grounded at any one time.  So seeing three of them at one place isn’t a normal occurrence, especially from just a few dozen feet away, at 30,000 feet.

My friend Rod Lake texted me that it is a bucket list thing I just did, but you wouldn’t even know it to put on your list because it is so crazy.  I couldn’t have said it better.  It was an once in a lifetime experience, I think.  Pretty cool.

Anyway, I’m still heading down to Texas today.  I’m not thinking much about not racing after Nationals.  I’m not too stoked about racing Masters Cyclocross Nationals.  I don’t have anything to prove there and honestly it isn’t my focus.  Maybe I’ll get enough points to qualify to ride the Elite race.  But starting that race at the very back would be thankless really.   Not sure there is a solution that I’ll be happy with here.

Okay, I need to pack, maybe try to ride a little or something and get driving.

Engine yesterday morning.

The K-135 refueling jet. I believe it is a modified 707. It holds 200,000 lbs of fuel. Pretty amazing.

This is Col. Chuck Remboldt. Super nice guy.

And this is a B-2 bomber getting about ready to get refueled at 30000 feet. They are based at Whiteman AFB in Missouri.

Yesterday was a first for me in cycling.  I received a ticket for running a red light on my bicycle. I have been riding bicycles for a really long time, and had avoided this my whole life.  But yesterday was the day.

I was riding up in Oceanside California and had about 45 miles to get back before dark.  I was in a rush since sunset was less than 2 hours. But being in a rush wasn’t the reason I ran the light.  I ran it because I’d be stopped by a gazillion lights in a row and that they lasted forever.

I ran the light, no doubt about it.  About a mile later an Oceanside police car pulled me over. The officer was super nice and asked me if in Kansas I didn’t have to stop at red lights.  I told him that generally we did.   He went on to explain if there weren’t so many other cars at the intersection he probably would have let me off, but he felt the eyes of all the other drivers on him, so thought he should pull me over to show them he wasn’t being lazy.

At that point I thought that maybe I’d get a warning.  But after a couple minutes, he asked me for my driver’s license.  And he went back and got his ticket book and started writing.

It took a while.  He was very thorough.  He even asked me how many “speeds” my bike was. And wrote Eriksen down on the ticket.  Not sure why that was?

I asked him how much it was going to be and he said he didn’t have any idea.  Then when he handed me the ticket he said that stop light violations tended to be pretty pricey.  Pretty pricey in California is going to be astronomically pricey compared to Kansas, I assume.  I just looked up the violation and I think it is going to be just around $500.  That is unbelievable.  He didn’t think there was a way to pay it up online, that I would receive a “courtesy reminder” in a couple weeks telling me my options.  I saw some fix-a-ticket ads on the internet.  I wonder how those work?

Anyway, I’ve ran a ton of stop lights and signs in my life.  More earlier in my cycling life than present.  So if I divide the $500 by number of violations I’ve committed, then it would be next to nothing.  I just wish it wouldn’t have been in California.

The officer was super nice and professional.

I pedalled pretty hard all the way back and had pretty good numbers for the whole ride. Is that an upside ?