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Old April 22nd 18, 04:22 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Joy Beeson
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Posts: 1,638
Default AG: Ice


On a car trip on a hot day, I noticed that there was no ice in the
six-pack cooler of beverage my sister had brought along. Instead, she
had frozen a bottle of bottled water. No mess in the cooler, and
there was ice-cold water in case of need.

Which reminds me of a sack lunch I was given at a convention once:
it contained a frozen juice box, which had nearly thawed by lunch
time. Pity they had had the even-more clever idea of making "celery
sticks" and "carrot sticks" by running celery and carrots through a
julienne machine with dull blades. The few edible bits were buried in
puree that had begun to rot before they put it into the sack.

I used to freeze different amounts of water in bike bottles, so that
each had only a little ice left when taken out of the cooler and put
into a bottle cage. Then one scorching day it didn't thaw as fast as
I'd expected, even though I took all the bottles out of the cooler and
exposed them to the wind as much as I could. I had to stop every mile
to shake each bottle vigorously and drink the few drops that had
thawed.

If you repeatedly freeze liquid in a container that wasn't made to be
an ice mold, it will break, and you won't notice until the
worst-possible time. But if you are careful that the expanding ice
doesn't stretch the sides of the bottle, you can freeze as often as
you want to. I put in a small amount, and prop the bottle tilted, so
that the area exposed to the air in the bottle is as large as
possible. The shallow layer of ice can't get purchase to push against
the walls of the bottle, and all the expansion goes into making a hill
in the middle of the exposed surface. Then I put in a little more,
and tilt the bottle another way,

I thought that I could get out of freezing tea in bottles by making
tea ice cubes. Alas, the tea separated from the freezing water. I
not only got ice cubes that diluted my tea, it took prolonged vigorous
scrubbing to make the ice tray fit for use again.

I used to carry spare water in a square Rubbermaid quart bottle that
took up no more room in my cooler than a twenty-ounce bicycle bottle.
(A quart is thirty-two ounces.) But it took up the same amount of
space when it was empty, and if there was ice in the bottle and even
the teensiest bit of head space, it rattled continuously when the bike
was in motion.

And then the cork on the pour spout took to popping off. I figured
that this was due to my habit of storing it in the freezer; a film of
water inside the pour spout would push the lid loose, and make it seem
to be tight until it thawed. For a while, I was careful to pack it
with the pour spout on top, and continued using it.

Nowadays, I carry just three bottles: two bottles in the cages, and a
bottle of tea in the insulated pannier to swap out at noon. I may
also have some small semi-disposable containers of frozen switchel
concentrate, to add to water I pick up along the way.

I put a tray or so of ice cubes into a zipper sandwich bag. If I
recall correctly -- I didn't work my way up to long rides before the
end of hot weather last summer, and it's likely to be even worse this
summer, when I'm starting over from scratch in May. It feels like the
fifteenth re-start this year, but there hasn't been time for more than
three.

Anyway, I *think* that I still had some ice left of three bags after
being out all of a scorching-hot day, while occasionally filching a
cube to put into a lukewarm water bottle. At intervals, I drain
melted ice into a bottle, but never more than a quarter of a bottle so
that I can drink it up before it gets warm. The ends of the zippers
make excellent pouring spouts. And if you partly-close the zippers,
they hold the ice back.

-------

Last spring, I won an extravagant door prize at A Taste of Ag: a
space-blanket tote bag filled with frozen Maple Leaf products. There
were two packets of "Black Ice" in the bag to keep them frozen.

I went to the Black Ice Web site, but it was written by a professional
ad man/self-styled Web designer, so I have no idea what's in the
packet, nor do I have any idea what "perfect temperature" the
phase-changing contents change phases at. But I do know that Black
Ice is good. My other reusable-ice packets last a long time because
they melt well above freezing. Black Ice keeps the temperature below
freezing, and they haven't melted on me yet.

When I cut a coupon for really-cheap stuffed chicken breast out of the
paper, I found that Black Ice packets fit my pannier perfectly,
exactly filling the space left at the ends of a box of stuffed chicken
breast. And they kept said chicken (and a package of duck bacon)
solidly frozen for three hours, only softening a little on the side
next to the newspapers I insulate the panniers with.

It wasn't hot that October day, but it wasn't particularly cold,
either. When I made a couple of Maple Leaf runs in March, The Black
Ice remained quite firm. As did the duck confit that stuck up to be
covered only by newspaper and a plastic bag of crumpled plastic bags.
I thawed that package first anyway. (Writing this reminded me to take
the second two-pound package out of the freezer. Enough time has
passed since we ate confit for days that we can enjoy doing it again.)

This year's A Taste of Ag was at least as extravagant. After a free
meal, I went to the check-in (there had been a line stretching clear
out of sight when I arrived) and won a peach pie. A very tasty peach
pie from Maple Lane Bakery, which is nowhere near Maple Leaf Farms.
Everybody got a bar of goat-milk soap.

--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.



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