A Long Commute to Work

October 17, 2011

The IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) is holding their semi-annual face-to-face meeting in Kansas City.  This group is comprised of medical equipment device manufacturers’ design engineers that work together with the objective of establishing standards that simplify medical equipment communication over networks with other devices and systems.  These folks are smart.  Real smart.  I’m not near on that level of smartness, but I have been invited to participate over the last couple of years as a voice from the “trenches”, sharing experiences and desires for future work.  We’ll be working together in Kansas City over the next few days.

Air travel would be easy, but it can take more time than it’s worth sometimes.  It would be around 575 miles to “commute” to the meeting, if I took the long way there, through northwestern Arkansas and southern Missouri.  That’s a good excuse to take the bike there, and the weather was looking fine.

The alarm sounded at 5:30 AM, and I kissed Debbie goodbye just after 6:00 as I pulled out in the morning darkness.

The sun rose before Paris, and I squinted my way around its loop to where the roads start getting interesting.

I fueled in Broken Bow, right next to the Choctaw Casino, and then headed north on the wooded Hwy 259, looking forward to the winding descent around the Talimena Trail.

The weather was great, with hardly any wind and temperatures around 80.  The trees looked dry, as I left the multi-lane for the twisty Hwy 71.  The leaves were just starting to change colors, but I’m not sure if they will be vivid colors this year with the dry conditions.

I love these signs and the roads that follow.

Back in my bicycle racing “career”, Roger and I raced along Rob Walton around the Bentonville area and north of Pea Ridge.  He was a very strong cyclist and a very nice guy.  This was before his dad, Sam, passed away.  I’m wondering if he is still making time to ride, or if the Walmart dynasty is taking focus.

The roads in southern Missouri were awesome, with some very small “trails” and others well paved and very twisty.

As I rode further north, the weather went downhill, with temperatures eventually dipping into the 40’s with strong northeastern winds and sprinkles as I rode into Kansas City.  The room felt comfortable and the warm shower even more so.

Not a bad commute.  Not sure if I would want to do it every day…

Photos    https://photos.app.goo.gl/Xo9x3SPpj4FhfWQ9A

Tracklog    https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/20111021kansascity