108 For Hotter 'N Hell 100 With Below 100 Arriving Tomorrow

Look at what is on the weather menu for tomorrow!

Under 100 degrees for the first time in what seems a long time. With some possible thunderstorming.

Today, Saturday, August 26, the temperature is scheduled to reach 108 degrees.

Today, in Wichita Falls, we have thousands of bikers in town for the Hotter 'N Hell 100 race. Thousands of bikers roll their wheels for 100 miles under the scorching sun predicted to heat to 108 degrees today.

If it was not so HOT I would venture to the MPEC (Multi-Purpose Event Center) downtown to watch the racers cross the finish line. I have only done that once, on a cloudy day, not heated above 100 degrees, and I recollect that day as being miserably HOT.

There are many things to see at ground zero of the Hotter 'N Hell 100 location. Food trucks, vendors vending various bike-related products, a big tent covered beer garden, live music, an art garden of various works of art featuring bikes. 

I do not know if the bike art garden is a regular feature, or just was part of my one and only time attending.

An interesting tent near the finish line is the Triage Tent, where those wounded by a bike wreck get their wounds attended to. This was one of the bloodiest things I have ever seen in person.

I have never had the slightest inkling of a desire to ride my bike in the Hotter 'N Hell 100.

Maybe if it was the Hotter 'N Hell 10.

Actually, there are several other races of shorter duration for those for whom pedaling 100 miles is not even remotely feasible...

Hotter 'N Hell 113 Sunday Degrees

Today is scheduled to be the HOTTEST day so far this HOT time of the year. What with it being very HOT dangerous HEAT, I won't be doing any salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic activity in the outer world today.

My air conditioning system failed, over night, a couple nights ago. This had the interior space being 87 degrees. The air conditioning system was quickly fixed soon after the sun arrived to begin super heating us again. A heat pump part called a capacitor had died.

Today is the next to last Sunday of August. A day or two over a month to go til the end of this super HOT summer.

The Hotter 'N Hell 100 bike race is next weekend. Unlike last year's Hotter 'N Hell, this year's temperature is currently predicted to be over 100 degrees. 

Day After Wichita Falls Hotter 'N Hell 100

What you are seeing above is a screen cap from Sunday morning's Wichita Falls Times New Record showing the start of yesterday's Hotter 'N Hell 100 bike race event.

Can you see me? Probably not. 

A few weeks ago a town in South Dakota had its annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. There was some concern prior to the rally that it would be a COVID super spreader event. I have seen a news report, or two, that that indeed has happened, with a COVID spike hitting those attending the Sturgis Rally.

I know many precautions were taken for yesterday's Wichita Falls bike rally. I drove by the staging area on Friday and saw RVs of various sorts as far as I could see. I do not know if there were various people pleasing venues at the MPEC such as I greatly enjoyed my one and only time experiencing, up close, Hotter 'N Hell 100, including watching the racers make it to the finish line. 

I remember being surprised by what looked to be a MASH-like triage tent where injured bikers were being treated. I don't remember ever seeing so much blood before that occasion. COVID would seem to present all sorts of challenges treating injuries in a triage tent. But, I assume there must have been such a thing in play yesterday.

The temperature did not get to 100 yesterday for the Hotter 'H Hell 100. I think it barely managed to get into the low 90s. You can almost feel a chill in the air, a harbinger of the arrival of Fall in a few weeks.

This coming week I should be getting my bike back from the bike doctor, if the surgery is a success...

Google Remembers The Big Spider I Forgot From This Day Of August 27

Every day, for a week or more, Google has been emailing me an email ostensibly showing me a look back at my memories from the day the email was sent.

Such as today's memories from this particular day of August 27.

A few days ago, well, on August 21, to be precise, I made mention of the fact that Google Erroneously Looks Back At My August 21 Memories. That time, the August 21 time, at least I knew what more of the photos were memories of.

But the BIG spider you see above? No memory of that.

As for the cat lounging on the floor? That does not look like Hortense. My cat who flew to Texas a month before my arrival, and who died a year later and is buried in a horse corral in the Fort Worth suburb of Haslet. The cat could be Little Eddie, and those chairs and Little Eddie could possibly be sitting on the covered patio of the house in Haslet, which was my first Texas abode.

Not really a memory I want to remember. Let alone see photo documented. 

Changing the subject from bad memories to current memories. I can not go on a bike ride today. My bike is at the bike doctor's office getting adjusted. The adjustment is going to take longer than it normally would because the doctor is backed up with a lot of patients needing help before tomorrow's Hotter 'N Hell 100. 

During this Hotter 'N Hell week I have not been downtown and seen the throngs assembled for tomorrow's big event. I think it was kicked off yesterday. I do not know if the event is fully recovered from COVID. I suspect not, because I did read some part of  HNH100 has been moved from the MPEC to another location downtown.

I feel exercise deprived without a bike. I can feel the endorphin shortage. I could go on a hike to the hilly Wichita Bluffs, but, like I already mentioned, it is Hotter 'N Hell, and thus not too pleasant to be out walking in the heat...

Hotter 'N Hell Today With No Hotter 'N Hell 100

Screenshot from my phone on this last Friday of the 2020 version of August.

The Hotter 'N Hell 100 should have been happening now, but it was canceled months ago due to the Trump Pandemic.

If I remember right, and sometimes I do, last year's Hotter 'N Hell 100 was not HOT, with the temperature being in the 90s. With rain, again, if I am remembering right.

108 is a bit warm. Not the hottest I've ever experienced, but HOT enough.

The A/C seems to be working well. It shuts off every once in awhile to take a break.

I have the A/C set at 76.

At my old home location in the Puget Sound zone of Western Washington, an outdoor temperature of 76 would feel like a heat wave.

I recollect way back in the year 2004 I flew up to Washington, leaving a Texas heated into the 100s. I landed at Sea-Tac and upon exiting the airport and feeling the air for the first time, I shivered.

The temperature was in the low 70s.

The person who picked me up that time took me to Tacoma, where I soon found myself waiting outside something called The Queen's Closest. There was a guy painting the outside of the building.

Shirtless.

I was shivering and this guy was shirtless.

Soon I found myself at Fred Meyer's (think Walmart, but way nicer, or it used to be before Krogers bought it) to buy sweatpants and a sweatshirt.

I can not remember when I last felt the need to find my sweatpants. I suspect that need may be arising in a couple months. Sooner if for some reason I find myself up north, in Washington...

Biking MSU Ghost Campus Wondering About Wichita Falls Hotter 'N Hell 100 & COVID-19

This final Sunday of the 2020 version of April my bike took me north on the Circle Trail, then west through the Wichita Falls Beverly Hills to the MSU campus before crossing Midwestern Boulevard to ride around Sikes Lake with a lot of other refuge seekers.

The MSU (Midwestern State University) campus is a ghost campus these days, way more so on a Sunday. Thus I roll along locations I normally avoid on campus due to there being way too many students with whom to share a paved path.

Today my bike stopped me at the statue on campus which pays homage to the annual Hotter 'N Hell 100 bike race.

That got me wondering, what with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, has the Hotter 'N Hell 100 been cancelled.

I Googled "Hotter 'N Hell 100 cancelled?" and found no instant answer to that probing question.

So, I clicked on the official Hotter 'N 100 website link and quickly found the following answer regarding this year's biggest annual Wichita Falls event...

Both of us, here at the Hotter’N Hell Hundred office, are well and working remotely to comply with our local government “Shelter in Place” guidelines. Planning continues to progress for the 39th Annual HHH Weekend – August 27 through August 30, 2020!  Registrations are currently over 1300 and continuing to grow daily.

We fully expect that by the end of the summer the threat from the virus will have come to conclusion so that we can proceed with our weekend of events. That said, we will be reviewing the situation weekly and may make some adjustments as required for the safety of participants. 

Since I have been aboding in Wichita Falls I have only attended the Hotter 'N Hell 100 event at the MPEC (Multi-Purpose Events Center) once. It was a fun thing to attend, way bigger than I expected, with way more to see than I expected.

But, it was so HOT.

If the HNH 100 takes place this year methinks I shall make an effort to attend. Being there when the winner crosses the finish line was way more fun than I thought such a thing would be, followed by seeing 100s of others cross the finish line.

The crossing the finish line thing happens for hours. I think, if I remember right, I watched for about a half hour before I needed to seek shade...