NACF
Cycling + => Freewheeling => Topic started by: sam on June 15, 2012
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What: Hastings Hustle II: Independence Day. Click here for prequel. (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/acf/index.php?topic=52447.0)
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/HH/aliens.jpg)
Where: London to Hastings
When: Not the 4th of July: the 14th. (The Queen doesn't officially celebrate her birthday (https://www.royal.gov.uk/HMTheQueen/TheQueensbirthdays.aspx) on her birthday, either.) If the weather is poor, we'll try the 21st.
Why: To commemorate independence (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/HH/AG2.jpg) and the striving of people everywhere for freedom.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/HH/AG.jpg)
No really, why?: I like hills and it's a good excuse for a cruise through history and some splendid countryside.
Meeting place: Somerset House, across the river from where Critical Mass meets, because I like irony, too.
Appropriately enough this also used to be HQ for the tax office.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/HH/SomersetHouse.jpg)
one I made earlier (https://www.lfgss.com/thread81269.html)
Itinerary: See prequel thread. In addition, this time we will be passing Down House, home of Charles Darwin, misguided (https://creationmuseum.org/) eminent Victorian and inventor of the Darwin Award. (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/HH/darwinaward.jpg) Here we'll pause for a moment's silence to mourn Texas, (https://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/?pagination=false) the missing link between church and state.
Which bike: Bring something with a granny gear, unless you want a challenge.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/HH/grannygear.jpg)
Playlist:
Living In America (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHqUipinDyw)
Sail Away (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwwhHI_IMog)
The Star Spangled Banner (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMhq1L0cJf0)
Born in the USA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIekamBDiAw)
Pink Houses (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53OV4E9Ol3w)
America (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCbOEZ8c8dM)
American Pie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr-BYVeCv6U)
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Recon mission. At Crystal Palace Park I run into a guy (not literally) on a mobility scooter who raced in the 50s pushing a big fixed wheel. Codename Sisyphus tells me his back and knees are wrecked. He then admires the welds on my bike, which isn't something I can take credit for.
Pass a small herd of Megaloceros. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_Dinosaurs) They shouldn't be a problem as long as they aren't startled.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/megaloceros.jpg)
My main area of interest this day is Down House, further south. I explore the possible routes incorporating it.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/downhouse.jpg)
Confirm the impossibility of cranking my singlespeed velocipede up one of the short but deadly hills on offer.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/grimhill.jpg)
Visit James Wolfe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wolfe) in Westerham. We discuss the capture of Quebec, which he insists was worth the three musket balls he might have avoided if evolution hadn't favoured him with the uprighteous blessings of bipedalism. I remind him of his declaration to his officers: "Gentlemen, I would rather have written that poem [Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard] than take Quebec tomorrow," which ends with the narrator mourning a cyclist who took on too great an incline:
One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,
Along the heath and near his fav'rite tree;
Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;
The next with dirges due in sad array
Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him borne.
Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay,
Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/wolfe.jpg)
Also inform him that, speaking as an American, the French were later helpful to us.
Carry on home to contemplate history poetry the refrigerator.
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As the nation of my birth celebrates its birthday, I thought it appropriate to highlight key moments of some of the men at the helm.
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/presidents/obama.jpg)
President Obama signing a bill honoring one gear
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/presidents/cheney.jpg)
President Cheney outlaws spokey dokes
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/presidents/clinton.jpg)
Clinton was hoping for an Il Pompino
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/presidents/bush.jpg)
Bush: "Read my lips: No new bike lanes"
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/presidents/reagan.jpg)
Future president Ronald Reagan putting on a brave face after Virginia Mayo takes Bonzo's place as stoker
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/presidents/carter.jpg)
Jimmy Carter tackles the important issues in a seminal 1976 Playboy interview
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/presidents/ford.jpg)
Gerald Ford causes a diplomatic incident by telling the Queen he'd like to give her a ride
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(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/hillmap.gif)
Some hills along the way, with their honorary twins in the States:
Denmark Hill
We don't go very far up this. If we carried on we'd end up on Herne Hill with its famed velodrome; instead we'll be scaling the sleeping policemen on Champion Hill.
twinned with Capitol Hill
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/capitol.jpg)
Hogtrough Hill
Westerham Hill would be more direct, but Hogtrough offers a much more peaceful decent, to better enjoy the view. Also worthwhile is the spin along Pilgrims' Way (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims%27_Way), "the historic route supposed to have been taken by pilgrims from Winchester to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent" which closely follows "a pre-existing ancient trackway dated by archaeological finds to 500–450 BC, but probably in existence since the stone age."
twinned with Nob Hill, a neighborhood in San Francisco
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/lombard.jpg)
Hosey Hill
Proof that what goes down (Hogtrough) must come back up. Leads to Churchill's Chartwell.
twinned with Bunker Hill
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/bunkerhill.jpg)
Rogues Hill
After passing the medieval Penshurst Place (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penshurst_Place), the climb to Bidborough, with its front row seat to the North Downs, begins here.
twinned with George Roy Hill, director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/flyingbutch.jpg)
Bartley Hill Road
Actually it's Bartley Mill Road. Two hills in quick succession because one is never enough.
twinned with Hill Street Blues (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/lets-be-careful-out-there.jpg).
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/hsb.jpg)
Kings Hill Road
The only thing that stands between Burwash and that pyramid. The elevation is up there with Ditchling Beacon; fortunately you get an extra mile to enjoy the climb.
twinned with the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/rushmore.jpg)
Cackle Street
This goes gloriously down from Brightling, but a reminder that the hills aren't quite over swiftly follows, so,
twinned with Heartbreak Hill, infamous incline near the end (https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/grimreaper.jpg) of the Boston Marathon
(https://www.notanothercyclingforum.net/pics/heartbreakarmstrong.jpg)