Burlington, Massachusetts to Boston, Massachusetts

Brattleboro, Vermont to Burlington, Massachusetts

Wow! Today really was hard!

Two really hard days in a row. Yesterday was really difficult, that due to the intense climbing and the associated humidity. Today was even more difficult. We did 91 miles today (96 miles, by my bike computer) and the elevations were even more challenging than they were yesterday.

Way back even before this trip actually began, I had looked carefully at the schedule and itinerary. I had noted that these last two days of the trip would probably be quite difficult. Based upon my understanding of the topography involved, I had expected that there would be very challenging elevations on both the Albany to Brattleboro and Brattleboro to Burlington days.

I see that I was correct.

Today we managed to cross two state lines, not just one! That is rather exciting.

We left Brattleboro this morning and continued east. In literally only 2.4 miles we were crossing the Connecticut River and entering into New Hampshire! That was neat for me. It is just a few months short of 40 years ago now that I first saw the Connecticut River, then when I was going to Hanover, New Hampshire, for the very first time. It was impressive to view that river again now, this time a bit further south than before. It is still an impressive waterway. Many memories are associated with the state of New Hampshire.

We were in New Hampshire for roughly 40 miles today, that almost all on route 119. This was a very difficult road on which to ride. The hills were shorter than those of yesterday, but far more steep. My legs were just about at their limit.

Soon after making it into Massachusetts, the hills continued but became far less impressive. That was merciful. We had a relatively non-strenuous ride into Burlington. Getting into the Burlington region however did pose problems with navigation. This is now again far more urban. The traffic is more challenging and the roads are quite confusing. Even following our detailed cue sheet as best possible, we became quite lost before finally getting into our destination.

Marsha arrived here now also. She was detained by bad weather and the airline's difficulties with that. Ulimately she did arrive. It was so great to see her. We had never been apart this long before. She has now met many of my companions of the past seven weeks. That means a lot to me. I am really glad that she is here.

It is difficult to put in words how well I feel now. I have effectively completed the task that I set out to do. I have ridden a bicycle across the entire United States, from Los Angeles to Boston. I was far from confident that I would be able to really do that, when I made the decision to try. Now I have difficulty believing that I have succeeded.

Tomorrow we have the last ride of the entire trip. Today's ride was the last real ride of the trip, as tomorrow's is just a short 18 mile ride to the beach only. Still, that will really be important. I already feel great, effectively now having completed this huge cross-country trip. Still, tomorrow's ride will be the final step. That needs to be accomplished.

I have a small vial of sand from the beach at the Pacific Ocean. I will take that with me on the bike tomorrow. It will be scattered at the Atlantic Ocean beach.

Albany, New York to Brattleboro, Vermont

What an incredibly difficult day today was! This ride was listed as a 76 mile journey, although my bike computer and I put the mileage more at 79 miles. Regardless, this was one of the most physically demanding days of the trip. I don't know when I have sweated more on a ride.

We left our motel in Albany, New York, and found ourselves immediately in high volume urban traffic, that further aggravated by rather impressive and disorganized major road construction. New Yorkers who are en route to work are remarkably intolerant of cyclists. It was difficult and also a bit frightening. Regardless, we all made it intact.

At only 4 miles into the ride today we crossed the Hudson River! That was neat. The river at this location is quite wide. I wanted to stop and take a picture, but there was no safe place to do so. Anyway, it was impressive.

The further we got away from Albany, the less disturbing the traffic and road conditions became. That was merciful. At 31 miles into the ride, we made it into the state of Vermont! As always, state line crossings are a big deal for us.

Entering into Vermont, we found ourselves in the town of Bennington. That is a really neat place. It has the appearance of probably everyone's image of a typical Vermont small town. There is a central green town square. There is a huge church in the center of town, that almost resembling a gothic-style cathedral. There are multiple cemeteries also. If we had the time to look arround, I am certain that we would find graves dating in the late 1700s.

We left Bennington on Vermont route 9, and we stayed on that road pretty much to our final destination in Brattleboro. Right out of Bennington, route 9 took us on a brutal 7.1 mile climb. I was effectively at my physical limit on that climb, pretty much the whole time. I don't know when I have sweated more. It was a truly beautiful ride up into the mountains, but it surely was difficult! Many of the riders on this trip have heart rate monitors on at all times. Thank God I don't, as I really don't want to know what my heart rate was during that part of today's ride!

We went through Wilmington, and then we went over Hogback Mountain (another big climb), to finally end up now in Brattleboro.

The ride over Hogback Mountain was neat. It could almost resemble a northern Wisconsin forest road, although I believe we have more deciduous trees, and less conifers, here. The wildflowers at the roadside are neat. There were lots of Indian Paintbrushes, daisies, and wild violets.

I really am tired. I hope I have the energy for tomorrow's 91 miles and similarly impressive mountain road climbs.

We will see!

Regarding the four photos above, the bottom three really belong with yesterday's posting. Two are of the Mohawk river and its associated valley. The bottom photo is that of the "New Helmet Club". In that photo, from left to right, it is me, Craig, Roy, and Bill.

Little Falls, New York to Albany, New York

Today we had a truly great ride. I could not have asked for better weather conditions or a more scenic road. We enjoyed 71 miles of real fun today. It was absolutely great today.

Yesterday was June 21. That is the first official day of Summer and the longest day of the year. This morning then, as we were all eating breakfast, I made it a point to comment upon how obvious it is that the days are now getting so much shorter! I find it sometimes remarkable that precise and astute observations sometimes result in expressions of annoyance instead of appreciation. Oh well. Genius is rarely appreciated in its own time.

Roy is OK. He is profoundly sore. He has three cracked ribs. His right arm, right shoulder, and right hip are just like mine were soon after my fall in St. Joseph, Missouri, that now so long ago. I can feel his pain.

At one point early this morning, while we were still in Little Falls and getting ready to sign out and leave, it spontaneously happened that Roy, Craig, Bill, and I were standing together and talking in the parking lot. We were then casually speaking of bike accidents, and then we somehow came to the mutual awareness that it is the four of us who are the ones who have had mishaps on this trip. Each of the four of us is now sporting a brand new bike helmet, that purchased out of necessity during this trip. With each of us doing neurologically well (at least arguably) due to having trashed a helmet, we decided to call ourselves members of the "New Helmet Club". Someone took a photo of the four of us standing together, all in our new helmets. I feel special, being a member of that exclusive club.

Nice club, of course, but not a club that anyone would want to join!

The weather started out cool, but not cold. It was perfect for biking. As usual, I found myself wearing less clothing than the other cyclists. I just don't need the leg warmers and arm warmers, it seems. The sky was initally clear and sunny, but then it did become partly cloudy. It became warm, but never hot, even as of the time we arrived here in Albany at about 1:00 PM. We had a mildly annoying headwind during the last 20 miles or so, but even that wasn't too bad.

Little Falls, New York, is on the Mohawk River. I am learning that this river is the largest tributary to the Hudson River. It is also now part of the New York State Canal System, the successor to the older Erie Canal. The Mohawk runs pretty much straight east, to enter into the Hudson near Albany. Our trip today was primarily on US route 5, that just north of the Mohawk River and following it very closely. It was beautiful during the whole ride.

I have some really nice photos of the Mohawk River and associated valley. Sadly, I am now creating this blog post at a computer in which I cannot upload those photos. (This place has wireless Internet connectivity, but it doesn't like my Linux-based netbook. I am now therefore using a standard Windows desktop in their "Business Center". This computer does not allow me to enter in my photos from today, unfortunately.)

We left Little Falls this morning on US route 5, and that road initially had quite impressive hills initially, as it ran parallel to the river. This provided a variety of incredible views of the river, some from very high above and some from not far above the river at all. This place really is pretty. I have no difficulty in understanding how the Iroquois must have treasured this area.

Our route today took us through many various smaller towns, and then notably Amsterdam, New York, and then Schenectady, New York, before finally getting us in at Albany. There may be readers of this blog who may be in the process of planning their own future bicycle trip through Schenectady. I urge reconsideration. Don't bike through Schenectady if you can avoid doing so. Really.

Michel's wife is here now! I think that he and she had missed each other greatly, understandibly so, during these past several weeks. She made the 4-hour drive down here today, from their home in Montreal. It was nice to get a chance to meet her. Michel and she are in their own room here now, so I have his and my room entirely to myself. This seems different! With only one bike and one person in the room, it seems really big. He and she will follow the ride on tomorrow (to Brattleboro, Vermont) and Thursday (to Burlington, Massachusetts) in their car. I have the impression that Michel may not ride a whole lot of those next two rides on his bike.

It is truly difficult for my to really comprehend how this wonderful and long adventure is now soon to come to a close. I had been planning on this trip, daydreaming virtually daily, for much of the past year. It is difficult for me to grasp that I am now finally not only actually doing it, but almost fully done! Part of me tells me that it is indeed time to have this trip end, and return back to the so-called real world. The other part of me is already reluctant to think about giving up the routine of biking to a new location each day. I am so happy with how things have gone on this trip. My bike and my body have both held up well, at least if you don't ask for details, even better than I might have expected. I feel that I have had such a great time, and this trip has more than lived up to what I had been hoping for.

There are still three days of riding left, those being Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. The ride on Friday, however, is a short 18-mile run from Burlington, Massachusetts, to the beach (Rivere Beach) in Boston. That being the case, there really are only two true days of riding left. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we go to Vermont. On Thursday, we leave Vermont, clip off the southwest corner of New Hampshire, and end up in Burlington, Massachusetts. These next two days promise to be as scenic as they will be arduous. They will both involve long mileages, and LOTs of climbing. We will contend with a small piece of the northern Berkshire mountains, followed by the Green mountains, and then the White mountains. I am simultaneously eager to see the views of these next two days and anxious about the degree of difficulty. I am reminded by the quite hilly ride Bill and I enjoyed with Bike Virginia two years ago; it does seem that scenic beauty in bicycle trips is inextricably tied to physical difficulty.

More tomorrow!

Syracuse, New York to Little Falls, New York

Today's ride was a very good one. We went 78 miles today, all on a very good road and all in very good weather. There were not much hills. Everyone enjoyed an easy and high speed ride. I made it to Little Falls at well before 1:00 PM, and that was not even with pushing very hard. My average speed was well over 17 mph for the total ride today.

It is funny how 78 miles can now seem like a "rest day".

Early in today's ride we did have a mishap. The ride had been otherwise going so well at the time. I was really enjoying the scenery and all of the other aspects of the ride. I was about to casually mention to Paula how nice the ride was going. We were probably only 20 miles into the ride, when I heard a monosyllabic expletive suddenly behind me. It was Roy, who had been drafting Greg quite closely. Greg had shifted slightly to the left, and Roy may have anticipated that poorly. Anyway, Roy's front wheel developed an inappropriate relationship with Greg's back wheel, leading to Roy's sudden high velocity smack down on the hard pavement. I had looked back in time just to see Roy's final flight into the road. It was so sudden, unexpected, and frightening for all of us.

It was really neat to see how well our group handled this. I was right there at the site, so I quickly got off of my bike and went to Roy. I kept his head and neck stable, while checking on other vital issues. Absolutely everyone else went into a sudden damage control mode as if it had been well practiced. We had riders on both directions on the road, controlling traffic as if they were experienced police officers. (I am certain that none of the automobile operators would have had the nerve to contend with them; the cyclists would have summarily ripped out the lungs of any car driver who did not cooperate with them.) I knew that I could stay with Roy, out there in the middle of the road, and not have to worry about cars at all.

We called 911 and the paramedics came soon. They took Roy away. We have yet to see him back, but we have progress reports that he is OK and will hopefully rejoin us soon.

Tomorrow we go to Albany, New York. This is getting to be very exciting. It is truly difficult to believe. We are so near the end of this long journey. We all have so many mixed feelings and emotions about that realization.

We have a probably 71 mile day tomorrow, that probably rather easy and light. After tomorrow, we will have two really arduous days. On Wednesday we will go from Albany, New York, to Brattleboro, Vermont. On Thursday we will then go from Brattleboro, Vermont to Burlington, Massachusetts. Both Wednesday and Thursday will be long mileage days with LOTS of climbing.

Canandaigua, New York to Syracuse, New York

Today provided for us a very nice ride. Unlike yesterday's adventure, it did not end in a storm. We just had nice weather the whole time. We enjoyed a short ride today, traveling only 68 miles. As was the case yesterday, we again had nice road surfaces and wide shoulders on the road. Not much traffic either, on this Sunday morning's ride.

We left Canandaigua and went east initially on US route 20. During much of the ride, US 20 and US 5 are the same road. This took us eastward largely parallel to, but south of, the New York State Turnpike (I-90). With the Interstate road presumably handling the majority of the traffic, that makes US 20 less traveled and much more pleasant. It was a really nice and scenic ride today. At probably 31 miles into the ride, US 20 and US 5 split up. We stayed with the latter, up until very close to Syracuse.

Syracuse is obviously a quite big city. Our approach, however, was well thought out and planned. We really missed out on a whole lot of ugly urban traffic that you typically see in cities of this size. That was nice.

At just 12 miles into our journey today, soon after leaving Canandaigua, we went through the town of Geneva. That is located at the north end of one of the finger lakes of this region. (Canandaigua is located at the north end of one of the other finger lakes, just to the west of this one.) Our ride through Geneva took us by a huge green park at the edge of that lake. It was early in the morning then. People were out walking arround. It really was nice. We later traveled through Waterloo and Seneca Falls, both also really pretty areas.

I had a flat tire at probably just 10 to 15 miles before arriving here in Syracuse. It has been quite a while since I have had one, so I suppose that I was due for this. (Craig had two flats yesterday, when he and I were riding together then.) I was riding alone at the time. I went through the usual routine of removing the old tube, putting a new one in, and inflating it with my sometimes-tempermental CO2 inflator. Inspecting the tire, I never saw any "culprit" piece of metal or glass to explain the event. I did take note of lots of small lacerations in the tire however, those small but deep. This tire has served me well on lots of pretty challenging surfaces, so I decided to replace it. That was my extra minor project to which I attended when I got here to Syracuse. Now I am, once again, ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Monday, we will go to Little Falls, New York.

Hamburg, New York to Canandaigua, New York

Today held for us, as promised, a very difficult day. Still, it was fun. We had 94 miles to travel, with lots and lots of steep hills. The alleged total climbing today was just under 6,000 feet. I do believe that it was indeed at least that much. Michel has a Garmin bike computer (model 705) which enables him to see road elevation. He tells me that we were often at 11% uphill grade today!

I rode virtually the whole day with Craig. We had a really nice time. He and I proved to be pretty equal in speed and stamina, it seemed. We were in the middle of the pack, sometimes near the front, for virtually all of the day. We had a really nice ride, and we enjoyed each other's company the whole time.

The road quality was excellent, with a wide and smooth shoulder all day long. Nice! There was a mild wind behind us, at least most of the time. Also nice! The sky was sunny (up until the last 20 to 30 minutes, that is). Craig and I were making good time, averaging over 16 mph even despite the hills.

With the sunny skies however, it did get pretty hot. I didn't take my Camelback today, so I was just drinking out of the standard bottles on my bike. I probably wasn't drinking enough, I suppose. Whatever.

Our second SAG was at 68 miles into today's ride, and it was in a city called Avon. There is a bank in downtown Avon, with the rather standard sign in front displaying the time and temperature. It was just after Noon then, and the temp was 87 degrees. It was really hot.

It was honestly difficult to drink enough fluids, in order to keep up with that heat and the associated level of exertion.

As the photo above demonstrates, we hit 3,000 miles today! I am pretty proud of that. Since leaving the beach in Los Angeles on the morning of May 9, we have now traveled over 3,000 miles! We hit the 3,000 mile mark at 51 miles into today's ride. Cool!

Craig and I got to probably within 6 to 8 miles of our destination today, here in Canandaigua, by probably 2:00 PM or so. All of a sudden, the weather turned to crap. Serious crap. Scattered thunderstorms had been the prediction for the early evening today, and we had been aware of that. The storms came early unfortunately. In literally only minutes, we went from a few random raindrops to a horendous downpour! Those last 6 to 8 miles were miserable and also a bit frightening.

I normally wouldn't care much about getting a bit wet on the bike. This downpour however managed to effectively fully disable my brakes. With the still hilly road, and now more traffic, entering into the city of Canandaigua without any brakes seemed almost to border on being a bad idea. There was a powerful and gusty wind coming from the right, tending to blow us into the traffic to our left. Indeed, there were times when the wind was so threatening, with also such poor visibility, that we just stopped our bikes on the road shoulder; getting rained on while standing still seemed safer than getting similarly rained on while being pushed leftward into the traffic.

When we finally arrived at our destination, miserably cold and wet, the storm took notice of our success and it immediately stopped! That seemed so unfair! Mother Nature is not only a bitch sometimes, but she also has a really annoying sense of humor. Oh well. Gotta deal with her, like it or not.

Tomorrow's ride is a shorter one. We go to Syracuse tomorrow. I will be happy to have a lighter day tomorrow, as I really am very tired.

Thinking of Syracuse, I am reminded of a quite different bike trip, that of roughly four decades ago now. Bill, Brent, Doug Anderson, and I collaborated on that trip, and I know that we all remember the nativity of that expedition at the Syracuse airport then. What an experience that was!

It is a statement of the obvious that this bike adventure is soon to come to an end. I have all of the expected mixed feelings about that. Among other things, I do wonder if I will remember what I am supposed to do, when I finally return to work. I am certain that I will need to re-learn a whole lot. Hopefully I will be up to the challenge.

As I think now of returning next week to La Crosse, I find myself wondering how all is going there. I have no doubt that all is running smoothly despite my prolonged absence of these past several weeks. If memory serves, Julie should be near her due date for her baby. I really hope that all is well with her and Mike. Having a baby may be more frightening than riding a bike without brakes into a hilly city during a thunderstorm.

More tomorrow!

Erie, Pennsylvania to Hamburg, New York

What a great ride today gave us! We went 78 miles and it was virtually all along the Lake Erie coastline. It was beautiful. We had perfect weather today. The sky was sunny, but it was never really hot. Great road quality, with a nicely wide shoulder, and effectively no wind. Traffic was unimpressive.

What else is there to life?

I am, once again, now in new state also. As the photos above help to confirm, I am now beyond Pennsylvania and in the state of New York! Neat!

As something rather unusual and entirely unexpected, we had a police escort out of town today! I am honestly not really sure quite how that happened, but it was really nice. As we were getting ready to leave our location in downtown Erie this morning, two motorcycle police officers just showed up! They waited until we were all ready and together, and then they took us out of town with lights and occasional sirens. What was neat about that was never stopping, or even slowing, at the numerous signal lights in the downtown area. We blew out of town effortlessly and very fast. The police departed us at the city limits, that after probably 5 miles. Weird, but kind of nice!

Virtually the entire ride today was along highway 5. We were on that road even before we were outside of the Erie city limits. That road runs northeast, and it basically follows the Lake Erie coastline, not far inland at all. As I was riding along today, I could look to my left and at least intermittently see nice glimpses of the lake. It really was nice. This was a really nice ride today.

I was correct in my expectation that we would see even more vineyards than we did two days ago, then approaching Erie. Indeed, there were huge vineyards on both sides of the road, virtually all day long. New York state must really produce a lot of wine. The bottom of the three photos above shows the view looking leftward (northwesterly) from highway 5. There is the edge of a large vineyard in that picture, as well as the look at the more distant Lake Erie. Pretty!

The prediction had been for a nice wind today, 5 to 10 mph, directly from the southwest. That would have been absolutely perfect, but it didn't really happen. I am not so sure that we had much of any wind at all. Even without the expected favorable wind however, this was a fast ride. The road was hilly, but only mildly so. My average speed today ended up at 16.4 mph, which isn't bad considering that the wind really wasn't a boost, after all. I arrived here in Hamburg at just after 1:00 PM today.

I am pretty well settled in already now, in Hamburg. My bike is well cleaned off, with a lightly oiled chain and other moving parts. My riding clothes are washed, and now drying in the sun. I am a bit hungry and thirsty, but those are easily solvable problems.

Tomorrow's ride will be difficult. Some rides are difficult due to hills and the associated climbing. Other rides are difficult just due to the distance involved. Tomorrow's ride will be difficult due to both. We go to Canandaigua, New York, tomorrow. That will be a long ride, at 94 miles totally, and it will also involve almost 6,000 feet of climbing.

Oh well! That's what I signed up for!

Niles, Ohio to Eire, Pennsylvania -- photos

These are all photos that I tried to upload with yesterday's post. The Internet connection quality here is very poor, with such impaired signal strength that I was unable to post these photos yesterday. I have, just this afternoon, found a more secure wireless Internet connection, so these pictures are now available.

The photo second from the top really is me. I know that I am not well defined on that picture. That picture was taken by Sam, and he was then unable/disinterested in the use of the zoom feature on my camera's lens.

I neglected to mention yesterday that the move into Pennsylvania then brought with it a new roadside botanical! We now see grapes as well as the earlier corn, soy beans, and ubiquitous day lilies. It is neat to see the vineyards now. I bet that there will even be more, as we move tomorrow into New York.

Today has been a very nice rest day in Erie. I went to a local laundromat earlier this morning. It was neat to see that it was all members of our group who were there then. Indeed, if it was not for our bicycle trip, I suspect that the laundromat would have done poorly today. All of my clothes are now clean and my bags are re-packed and ready for the last week of the trip.

Today we were rejoined by both Sandy and Craig. I am glad to see them both. Craig had to drop out, as of St. Joseph, Missouri, due to illness. He looks great now, and I am so glad that he is back.

A small subgroup of us rented a car today, and drove to Niagara Falls. I think that Doug Squires rented the car, and he was joined by Stuart, Stuart's wife Sandy, and a few others. I know that they had fun. I really did not want to go. I wanted to just relax here.

Last night, as on all of our rest days, the meal was on our own and not provided by the tour group. We might have been expected to go out all on our various separate ways, but we all ended up eating together. That just sort of occurred spontaneously. We really are a family now, after these six weeks, or so, of togetherness. We all just gravitated to the same local Erie restaurant together last night, and we had a truly great time. It really will be difficult to say goodbye to all of these friends, in only 7 or 8 days from now.

I had a great time today relaxing in Erie. After doing my laundry, I walked the ten blocks to the warf at the edge of the lake. I went to a maritime museum there. It mainly featured Oliver H. Perry, and his pivotal role in the War of 1812. There was some other stuff there also. Nice museum.

On to New York tomorrow! From what I can see on the forecasts, we should have good weather.

Niles, Ohio to Erie, Pennsylvania

Another day's ride and another state now also!

We rode 89 miles today. Leaving Niles, Ohio, we probably went more north than east, and we finally crossed into Pennsylvania at 62 miles into the ride. We are now in the city of Erie. This is our last stop that will be associated with a subsequent full rest day. We relax here tomorrow, and then Friday morning begins the final push to Boston!

I really am tired. I guess that is not difficult to understand. Looking back, this is the fifth consecutive day of rather long mileages. In the five days ending today, we have ridden a total of 464 miles. That's an average of effectively 93 miles daily. I guess that I don't feel too bad that I am tired. I will definitely rest up here in Erie tomorrow. My goal for tomorrow is to do nothing. (Nothing, with the exception of one load of laundry, of course.) Starting then on Thursday morning, we make our final non-stop push to Boston.

Aaaarrrrrr! I can already smell the salt water in the air!

Today's ride was good. There was nicer road quality today than was the case on the pre-Niles pothole-riddled roads yesterday. The winds today were favorable also. There had been some prediction of rain, as a possibility, but mercifully none came. It was a good day.

On getting into Erie, we had the option to take a 2 to 3 mile side trip to Presque Isle. I did that. It really is a pretty area. It is neat to see Lake Erie again, after all of these years. As I think back now, probably the last time that I saw Lake Erie was just about exactly 10 years ago now. That was at the time of our 30th High School reunion, when a few of us went to the beach at John's Dad's house, up at Mentor on the Lake. Maybe we will do that again next month!

Jan, Janie, LaVern and I just had lunch, in the past few minutes. We went to a sleazy place on State Street called "Stevo's Pizza". It was OK. It was fun to be with them after the ride today, even if the food was not the greatest. It is just fun to be here, and to be on this trip. Eating at Stevo's Pizza is all part of the experience.

Incidentally, thanks very much to Andrea for the comments on yesterday's post. I am sorry that both the Dinner Bell restaurant and Frizell's Freeze are gone now. At least I have the awareness that I am not alone in remembering them. Thanks!

I do have some photos from today's ride. Due to my current abyssmally poor Internet connection now however, I cannot upload them. I have repeatedly tried, unsuccessfully so, in the past several minutes. Perhaps I will try later today, if I can get a better signal strength somewhere arround here.

Wooster, Ohio to Niles, Ohio

Today's ride was, once again, another long and difficult ride. I recognize that my recent postings probably all carry a recurrent theme of commenting on how hard things are. But that is, honestly, pretty accurate. The past three days, plus tomorrow, constitute four very long, hard, and consecutive rides, all with very hilly terrain.

I grew up in northeast Ohio. I don't remember it as being this hilly! What happened?

We left Wooster this morning and it was actively raining hard. That is always a deflating way to get started on a ride. It felt like it did on the morning that we left Indianapolis. Happily enough however, the rain stopped after less than an hour on the road. Overcast skies persisted throughout the rest of the day, but no more rain.

Leaving the city, we did go by a fair amount of the Wooster College campus. It was nice to see that. It was deserted, as you would expect for this time of year, but a very attractive college campus nonetheless.

I am not entirely sure how we got out, as the route was difficult to mentally follow. We had a very complex cue sheet today. Indeed, today is the only day in the entire trip in which we had a two-page cue sheet, that stapled together. There were innumerable short segments of riding, with equally innumerable right and left turns. One could have the feeling that we were being led through a maze.

I know that we did go through a town called Canal Fulton. That was a cute small town. There were red brick roads in the center of the town. Those may be pretty, but riding a road bike on those bricks was no fun.

We went by Canton, at one point. Our first SAG stop was at a parking lot next to a church cemetery. That location was just a short distance from Shuffel road, which had taken us by the Akron-Canton airport. (I was impressed with how big that airport is.)

Leaving the SAG, we went through Marlboro Township and then the Town of Marlboro. During that time, we were traveling east on highway 619. It was at that time that we crossed highway 44, that going north and south, as we continued east on 619. I saw at that crossing the sign indicating that a left (north) turn on 44 would take us to Ravenna.

Seeing that sign immediately brought to me a flood of memories from my early bike riding years, back when I lived in Painesville, Ohio. That same road, highway 44, continues further north, beyond Ravenna, all the way to Painesville. In addition to being called 44, the more northern section of that road is called locally "Painesville-Ravenna Road". It starts from Painesville an intersection not far from my old home, the intersection with Liberty and Bank streets. (That intersection is where Frizell's Freeze and the Dinner Bell restaurant were both located. I loved both of those places. I wonder if they are still there.) We could bike over to that intersection and then take 44 south from that point. I remember that it was a nice initial downhill ride, leaving that intersection. We used to take that road to Chardon and back, a nice ride for us at the time.

Needless to say however, today I did not turn on to 44 and go north. I dutifully followed the cue sheet and stayed on route 619, continuing on eastward.

The ride today really was arduous. In the latter part of the day, we had a constant headwind. The unpleasantness of that was exacerbated by the deteriorating road quality. Indeed, in the last 25 to 30 miles before arriving in Niles today, we experienced probably the worst road quality of the entire trip thus far. Getting close to Niles, the road had potholes large enough for me to hide in! It was difficult to avoid holes in the road, as swerving away from one would generally only lead you into an adjacent one. That is not fun ever, but it is very much not fun when you are tired and near the end of a long ride.

Oh well. You can't always have perfect roads.

We rode 91 miles today. Everyone was tired. Very tired. Even the fast riders arrived at the destination in Niles quite late today. I did not get in until 3:45 PM. That late arrival really makes life difficult on a trip like this, as it dramatically cuts down on your post-ride "recovery time". After you clean your bike and shower, there just isn't a lot of free time left before the daily 5:45 PM group meeting ("Route Rap") when we get our briefing on the next day's ride.

Tomorrow is our ride to Erie, Pennsylvania. A new state line crossing again tomorrow! That is another long ride. Hopefully tomorrow's roads, winds, and other variables will be better than today's were.

We get to Erie tomorrow (Wednesday), and then we have our last full rest day of the trip on the next day (Thursday). On Friday, we start our final week of riding! How exciting is that? It is difficult for me to believe!

Marysville, Ohio to Wooster, Ohio

Today was probably one of the most physically challenging days of the entire trip. They had warned us that we would have lots of climbing today. I had no clue how true that statement was.

The weather was kind to us again. Overcast and phenomenally humid, but not really hot. No rain at all, despite the appearance of the sky that I tend to still perceive as threatening.

The ride today was hard all day long, but it was REALLY difficult in the final 20 to 25 miles. Our approach into Wooster was on highway 95, coming in from the southwest. Since the ride was long (97 miles totally) we had two SAG stops instead of only one. The second one was at probably 72 miles out into the ride. I was feeling tired then, but not totally wasted. I had no idea that the really difficult climbing was only then about to begin. That last 20 to 25 miles would have probably been difficult for me even if I had been fresh and well rested. After over 70 miles however, it really was placing me pretty much at my physical limit. I think that I will remember highway 95 for quite a while. The hills on highway 95 put everything that we saw in Missouri to shame. We had long hills with 11 to 12% grade, as well as short (50 yard) hills at 14% grade. Nice!

Oh well! Enough complaining!

Tomorrow we do a short 91 mile ride to Niles, Ohio. That will be our last stop in this state.

Richmond, Indiana to Marysville, Ohio

Today was our last official "century" ride of the entire trip. We will have rides to come in the 90+ mile range, but today was technically the last 100+ mile ride of the entire trip. The ride today was a 104 mile long adventure.

We left Richmond, Indiana, on a very overcast morning today. Rain had been predicted as a possibility, and I surely thought that it would come. Happily enough, we never received any rain from the ongoing very threatening skies. Nice. (Even though it was very overcast all day, I still wore more than plenty of my sunscreen.)

Richmond, Indiana, is almost on the Ohio border. We found ourselves at the "Welcome to Ohio" sign at only 2.7 miles on our cue sheet this morning! That was neat. Prior to this adventure, the only states that I had fully biked across, from west to east, were Iowa and Wisconsin. As of today, my list now also includes California, Arizona, New Mexico, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. (We were also in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas on this trip, but those were not full state crossings.)

It is neat to think that I am back again in Ohio. This is my state of residence from my infancy to young adulthood. I grew up and lived in Painesville, Ohio. Many, many great memories. We will be perilously to Painesville in a couple of days from now, then when we are at Niles, Ohio.

Today's ride involved a whole lot of scenery that was honestly pretty much similar to that of Illinois and Indiana. If you ask for details however, I feel that the corn was higher in Indiana and Illinois than it is here. I don't know why that would be the case. There was no rain here today, but they must have had a lot of rain recently. Indeed, some of the corn fields today look like a rice paddy.

I did see some people of the Amish faith today. A horsedrawn buggy went by, going the opposite way on the other side of the road. All inside were smiling and waiving at me. I waived back, of course. I had the feeling that they were more pleased to see a bicycle than yet another gasoline user.

It seems that most people in Ohio own dogs, generally large ones. Quite a number of dogs had really unpleasant statements for me as I rode by today. They don't seem to like bicycles. I don't know why. Fortunately, they were fenced in or otherwise physically restrained.

Most of the cyclists on this trip have pretty high-tech bike computers. One of the guys has a really fancy Garmin bike computer. At the end of each day of riding, he downloads data from his GPS-enhanced bike computer to his separate laptop. The laptop then has software which interfaces with Google Earth. This is far more technology than a luddite like me can understand, but it turns out that he can generate, on Google Earth, a map of the USA with our actual route superimposed! That seems so neat! He made this into a picture and shared it with all of us today. That photo is directly above on this post, just below the "Welcome to Ohio" photo. (The one with the remarkably handsome gentleman.) This map is current to today's location at Marysville, Ohio.

I will end this post now, so I can get something to eat. Tomorrow will be a 97 mile ride to Wooster, Ohio, so I need to eat up, and rest up, starting now.

Indianapolis, Indiana to Richmond, Indiana

The weather was bad today. In fairness, I guess that it is about time for us to have bad weather.

It was pouring rain early this morning, in Indianapolis. No lightening at the time, so we simply set out in the rain. Hard rain. It was not nice.

After 83 miles of rain, we arrived here in Richmond. At least no one had a mishap today. Wet roads and wet brakes often combine to greatly lower the threshold for accidents. That didn't happen. We all arrived safely, albeit very dirty and very wet, in Richmond.

Crawfordsville, Indiana to Indianapolis, Indiana

This was a good ride today.

The weather once again, mercifully so, was less bad than had been predicted. We had been warned of not just precipitation, but thunderstorms, by late morning. That never materialized. I am in Indianapolis now, and the sky looks increasingly ominous, but no bad stuff so far. Nice!

Bad weather in this region is again predicted, for the next few days or so. That does have me concerned. Still, I guess that it is what it is! (Maybe I should say that it will be what it will be!)

The ride today took us from Crawfordsville to Indianapolis via an unbelievably complex and circuitous pathway. I guess that is necessary, in order to avoid the high-volume roads. Our cue sheet has generally had only two to three panels (quadrants) on the piece of paper, even for longer rides. Today however, the cue sheet was double-sided and had literally eight panels of information and directions.

We went through an absolutely beautiful region of farmland, largely corn and soy beans. These all seemed to be smaller family farms. Navigating all of the multiple left and right turns, each for relatively short mileages, on generally unmarked roads, was more than a challenge. Still, it was fun and I can say honestly that I never was lost.

Once in Indianapolis, we had the option to take an additional 3.8 mile side trip and visit the "Major Taylor Velodrome". I am so glad that I did that. This meant extra time in the saddle for me, something that I am otherwise trying to limit, but it was worth it. We were able to actually go in and ride our bikes on the track! this is a 300+ meter track, with remarkable slopes. What an experience! (It can bring out the kid in you!)

This also gave me the oportunity to actually read up a little bit about Marshall "Major" Taylor. (If interested, Wikipedia does have a nice short article about him.) He had the misfortune of bad timing, being an absolutely incredible athlete in this country, at a time when this country was simply not yet ready to have successful black athletes. The story of the adversity he experienced then is more than sad.

Today's ride was short, only 68 miles long. Still, with the extra time spent in the side trip to the Velodrome, it ended up in long hours today for me. That's not entirely good, as I need to somewhat minimize my time in the saddle now because of the long mileage days to come. On the next five consecutive days, those ending ultimately in Erie, Pennsylvania, we will have no short distances at all. Our next five days will be 83, 104, 97 , 91, and 89 miles long respectively.

Oh well! No rest for the weary, as they say!

Champaign, Illinois to Crawfordsville, Indiana

It was a really great ride today. Perfect weather. Sunny, but not hot, and really no significant wind at all. The road surfaces were great and traffic was minimal. Other than a still sore right hip and right shoulder (both of which do seem to be slowly improving), I felt great.

The ride today was stated as 79 miles. I will go with that. (The odometer on my bike's computer says 80.9, but who is counting?)

Yesterday had been a full rest day in Champaign. It was great. It is almost difficult to reflect back now and think about how truly little I did, or accomplished, during the entire day! It was great.

Chris Hall's husband surprised her. He flew in to Champaign on the day that we arrived, just to see her. It was great to meet him. Chris' sister, Kathy, also showed up in Champaign, that arrival as entirely expected and planned. She is joining the trip, and she will ride with us all the way to Boston.

Chris' husband had a rental car. Neat. While she was holding ice on her freshly traumatized right hip, exactly as I had been doing last week, he kindly drove some of us to a really nice bike shop in Champaign. I got a new helmet there, as the helmet that I had purchased in Chillicothe, (my only choice there then) was really too small. I got a nice new helmet, one that fits perfectly, as well as a nice lightweight rain jacket and a pair of new riding shorts. Pretty cool.

Today's trip was a really nice ride. People who travel from Champaign to Crawfordsville generally have the good sense to use vehicles with internal combustion engines. They travel on I-74, and the whole trip probably takes barely over an hour. Obviously we with the more primative means of transportation are not about to take that road.

We left Champaign and traveled east on highway 150. That basically parallels I-74, and it is what Bobby Frost may have been referring to when he wrote about the "road less traveled." With I-74 taking away what we didn't want to see or deal with, we had a really nice ride to Danville, Illinois.

We got to Danville at a little more than halfway into our ride. That is the last Illinois city before the Indiana border. We had a SAG there at a park. (That park had restrooms!) People seemed to be only mildly annoyed when I made a point of personally welcoming them to the city that had been named after me.

In Danville, we left highway 150 and connected to highway 136. That basically did in Indiana what 150 had done for us in Illinois, nicely paralleling I-74 and taking us into Crawfordsville.

One of the last things you see in Danville, just south of highway 150, is a HUGE State of Illinois Prison. It is enormous. It really looks ominous and frightening. On the road nearby is a huge sign telling motorists not to pick up any hitchhikers, due to the proximity of the Prison there.

I really wanted to get my picture taken, hitchhiking right by that sign, but no one was riding with me at the time. Missed opportunity.

Once in Indiana, we traveled through truly beautiful small towns. We went through Covington, Veedersburg, and Hillsboro. It was a really nice ride. I love the sign you see as you ride into Hillsboro. Indiana means now Eastern Time Zone.

Tomorrow we ride to Indianapolis. That's the home of Mary Anne Jones and Troy Haider. Maybe time will enable me to contact them then. Time is short on this trip, but we will see.

Springfield, Illinois to Champaign, Illinois

Nice ride, but difficult ride today. Difficult because of winds and rain. We went 87 miles from Springfield to Champaign today!

I feel that I am pretty well recovered from my recent injury. My right hip is still swollen, but less so. I have ridden the full mileage now for the past three days, including yesterday's century ride. I still have mild awkwardness in terms of getting on and off of the bike, but I feel OK when I am on it.

The weather had been the expected big issue today. Very severe thunderstorms had been the clear prediction. Based upon the weather predictions, we all set out early today. Instead of our usual 7:15 AM start, we began today at 6:30 AM. As it turned out however, the weather was bad, but not nearly as bad as had been predicted. We had miserable winds and rains, but no lightening or thunder, happily enough.

As we left Springfield on highway 54, there was mild rain. That road runs northeast to Clinton, Illinois. With the southeast wind, we initially had a right-sided crosswind. The rain actually stopped after probably just 30 minutes. Soon after getting to Clinton however, we changed to highway 10. That took us southeast to Champaign. That meant a straight-on headwind, for the remainder of the trip. During the final 15 to 20 miles, the rain returned. I was pretty well drenched by the time of my arrival in Champaign.

I did well today. I had a trip-average speed of 14.4 mph, even with the unfavorable winds. I got into Champaign at 1:00 PM, which isn't bad for 87 miles. I was among the first to arrive.

Getting near Champaign there are some nasty railroad tracks. We had been warned about them. Still, three of us fell there. Chris, Sam, and Stuart all fell there. Stu is OK. Sam's leg is bandaged up a lot now, but I think that he is OK. Chris' hip now is swollen and looks a lot like mine did a few days ago. She is using ice.

We have a rest day tomorrow. I am more than happy with that. My big plan for tomorrow is to take a nap. I did major laundry already today. Tomorrow, I will clean my bike, re-lubricate the chain, and seriously nap.

There is a bike shop in Champaign. It is only 3 miles from where we are staying. I plan to go there tomorrow. I want to get a new pair of riding shorts, and probably some more bike tubes. It will be fun to just look arround there. That will NOT prevent my getting a nap tomorrow, however.

We rest tomorrow, here in Champaign. On the next day (Thursday) we make it to our next state! This is exciting. We will be in Indiana by the end of the day on Thursday. (That is also another new time zone for us!)

Quincy, Illinois to Springfield, Illinois

Wow! Was today ever difficult!

Today we went for 107 miles, and it felt to me as if it had been double that mileage. I had awakened well rested this morning, and the weather was fine all day long, so I don't have a good explanation. For some reason however, I was just totally generally out of energy all day long today.

Leaving Quincy this morning, we had a fair amount of climbing. Indeed, the initial third of today's ride was reminiscent of Missouri's roller coaster hills. All told, we had 4,000 feet of climbing today, and virtually all of that was in the first third of the ride. I was having as much trouble keeping up my speed even then, early in the day, as if it was late in the day. Nothing specific, I was just inexplicably "out of gas" all day today.

At 46 miles into today's ride we came to the Illinois River. The bridge over that river (see photo above) was worse than yesterday's bridge at the Mississippi River. Yesterday, crossing the Mississippi River, there were two separate bridges, one (the nicer and newer one) going east-to-west, and the other going west-to-east. Those bridges both had no shoulders at all, but both had two lanes, so it wasn't so bad to take up a full lane for the short duration of the crossing. Today's Illinois River crossing involved one bridge only across the river, for all traffic going both ways, again with no shoulder at all. There was only one lane of traffic for each direction. The only thing we could do was cross our fingers and ride fast.

It worked.

East of the Illinois River, the terrain became remarkably (mercifully) more flat. I found that I could keep my speed up reasonably well, but it still was a struggle. Hopefully I will inherit more energy by tomorrow morning.

Getting into Springfield today, a more urban region, the general demeanor of the automobile drivers took a plunge from bad to worse. Kansas drivers had been uniformly safe and courteous. Missouri drivers were not nearly so good, but I could live with most of them. Illinois drivers, at least from what I have witnessed so far, all should be forcibly extracted from the planet Earth permanently. (It is inconceivable that they can ever be rehabilitated or retrained, so they should just be removed from the planet permanently.)

Tomorrow we go to Champaign, Illinois. That will be an 87 mile ride with nice terrain. Only 2,000 feet of total climbing tomorrow. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have rain, and probable thunderstorms, predicted for this entire area, for all day tomorrow. Yuck!

I am pretty tired. As I finish this posting, I see that it is almost 8:00 PM now. I will surely not be awake much longer.

As I reflect upon how tired I am now however, I would even now reiterate my earlier stated opinion that a bad day on a bike is still always better than a good day at work! I may be wasted now, but that doesn't change the fact that this trip is still a great time!

More tomorrow, after our swim to Champaign.

Kirksville, Missouri to Quincy, Illinois

What a great ride today!

Today provided us with a perfect bike ride. There had been a huge thunderstorm last night in Kirksville, so maybe that blew away a lot of bad stuff. I don't know about that. What I know is that this morning came with beautifully clear skies, bright sunshine that was not too hot at all, and a very nice gentle favorable headwind. The countryside was beautiful. The road quality was excellent and there was only insignificant traffic. There were enough hills to make it interesting, but only rarely difficult. Rides like today's are why I came on this trip.

I am feeling so much better physically. I still have problems getting on and off of my bike, due to limitations in raising, or standing only on, my right leg. Once on the bike today however, my right leg seemed to wake up this morning. It was lazy yesterday, but my right leg today decided to pedal as well as the left one!

As today's ride began, and with my then inept mounting of the bicycle, I was having doubts about myself. Ten minutes into today's ride however, I was feeling great. Confidence returning. Willie Nelson appeared out of nowhere. He sat on my left shoulder (presumably being aware that my right shoulder is still sore) and he sang "On The Road Again" just for me! It was cool. I was doing 22 mph then. I love that guy.

The grapefruit lateral to my right greater trochanter is horribly black, but it is now only an orange-size. I am back in the game.

I made it to Quincy, Illinois, a 74 mile ride, by Noon today! (OK, OK, that is the winds talking primarily, not me. Still, I feel good about it.)

Just barely 15 to 20 miles into the ride today, we hit the 2,000 mile mark! Tom took pictures of everyone individually as they came by, each holding an appropriate "2,000 mile" sign. I will have to see if I can get a copy of the one of me.

Crossing the Mississippi River was no fun. Nice quality road surface on the bridge, but no shoulder at all! Two lanes of traffic, so we rode our bikes fully in the middle of our own lane, thereby making it difficult for drivers to push us too far to the non-existent right side of the bridge. There were a couple of drivers who had colorful and animated words of encouragement for me, those words voiced out of their open windows as they drove by on the bridge. One driver even suggested a creative idea for something I might choose to do with my bike!

It is nice to see that we have utter morons driving cars in every state of this country! As a cyclist, I have learned that there will always be motorists with IQs ranging in the vicinity of room temperature.

Centigrade.

My riding clothes are washed and now drying. I need to rest up well today. Tomorrow is going to be a long and hard ride. We ride 107 miles tomorrow, ending up then in Springfield, Illinois.

Chillicothe, Missouri to Kirksville, Missouri

Yay!

I am back on the road already!

Against the well-intentioned advice of some (most) of the other riders, I set out with the group this morning from Chillicothe, Missouri. I was worried about how it would feel, and how I would do. It ended up being a good decision, and all went well. Really well. I am glad that I rode today.

My right shoulder is still sore, but I can safely put weight on the handlebars now, enabling use of my right hand. My right leg still is heavy to lift, due to right hip pain and residual swelling. That makes it very difficult to even get on and off of the bike. Once on the bike however, I am delighted to find that cycling is far easier than walking! It really is. This is great. I still walk with pain, and with a limp, but I feel that I can bike comfortably and reasonably normally. Hurray! I have to be careful though, as I know that I am mainly pedalling with my left leg. That's not such a good idea.

Anyway, I am glad that my recovery from my recent fall is going better, at least so far, than I had feared that it might.

A take-home lesson that I have learned from all of this is that falling off of a moving bicycle is not generally a good thing. It is best to avoid that.

We had thunderstorms last night in Chillicothe, those lingering until the early morning hours. We had a delayed departure this morning, enabling the worst of the storm to pass, and then we took off in ongoing rain.

Riding in rain is generally miserable. This does however serve to keep the temperature nicely down. I found that I really didn't mind it much today. I was even able to keep up, at least pretty well, with Stuart. (OK, he probably wasn't really pushing it hard today.)

Regardless, I am far from fully recovered from my fall of two days ago in St. Joseph, but I am on the road to recovery. I am certain that I won't be back to my normal self for some more days, but at least I can ride with the group again now. Everyone in the group was very supportive, and they all said that it was nice to see me back on the bike so soon. (Some of my friends on this trip implied that I was premature in returning to the bike today. They may be right, but I have done what I felt was best, and it has seemed to work out OK, at least so far.)

I am in Kirksville, Missouri, now. My bike is cleaned off fully, with a lightly re-lubricated chain also. (The bikes were unbelievably dirty and muddy at the end of today's long ride in the rain.)

Today was a 75 mile ride. Tomorrow is a 74 mile ride, and a new state also! We end up tomorrow in Illinois! No offense intended, but I will be glad to get out of Missouri. It has not been kind to me. We will cross the Mississippi River tomorrow at 70 miles into our ride, and we will then end up tomorrow, at 74 miles total, in Quincy, Illinois. Neat.

Tomorrow's ride, I am informed, will be mercifully less hilly than today's was. I do hope so.

With all of the rain today, I did not bring my camera with me on the ride. Tomorrow however, I hope to get some photos. I will definitely take my camera tomorrow. Maybe I will be able to get photos of the Mississippi River! Seeing the Mississippi River might even remind me of home.

St. Joseph, Missouri to Chillicothe, Missouri

Today was such a disturbing day that I am sorely tempted to not even post a blog. ("Sorely"..., now that's a double entendre!) Today I was absolutely unable to ride at all. What a major disappointment. This was an 85 mile ride today, one which I viewed entirely from inside the van. I did not come here to ride in a van.

It turns out that I really managed to do a number on myself yesterday, with my fall. I feel much worse today. There is a huge hematoma overlying my right hip laterally. I probably dumped in at least a full unit of blood there, maybe two. It doesn't hurt at all, unless I move. My right shoulder is hurting all the time, even when not being moved.

I was unable to sleep at all last night, being unable to find any comfortable position in bed. (I now know that Michel does snore, just not very loudly.) This morning found me in more of a brain fog than I was yesterday, then even right after my fall.

Using my right hand, I was unable to put any pressure on the handlebars this morning, that because of right shoulder pain. When I went to the area where other cyclists were eating breakfast this morning, some riders wanted to know why I had stuffed a grapefruit in my pants. Indeed, just lateral to my right greater trochanter is a soft mass of exactly that size. (I don't remember grapefruit being black, however!)

Inspecting my helmet a bit more carefully now today, I see that I owe it a huge thank you. It is pretty well shattered. I could be the "poster child" for a bike helmet safety message.

I guess that I did fall a bit hard yesterday.

I am in Chillicothe now, population 2,121. This town does not have a bike shop. Reluctantly, I did walk over to the local WalMart. Hidden among the brightly colored children's bike helmets there, I did actually find one good quality Bell adult helmet. I bought it. It fits arguably better than my old Giro helmet.

Late this afternoon however, I found that I can now ride my bike! My right shoulder is better! I rode it in the parking lot a little bit. That should constitute a fair test, I would feel. If I can ride 25 feet in a parking lot, I should be ready to do 75 miles of hills tomorrow. That is logical thinking, I feel. My right shoulder is better with the handlebars now. I have (if you don't ask for details) full ROM at the right hip joint.

I'm good!

Tomorrow we have a 75 mile ride to Kirksville, Missouri. This will be lots and lots of more of these infernal "roller coaster" hills. It will be hot, humid, and with a 30% chance of thunderstorms.

We will see...,

Topeka, Kansas to St. Joseph, Missouri

A great ride today, and a new state also!

The ride yesterday was tough on all of us. It was a real confidence destroyer. Today, however, made up for that. Today's ride was 85 miles. The weather and the roads were perfect. I felt really well during the entire trip (except, maybe, at the very end). I felt that I was back to riding fast again. (OK, that is fast for me, not fast for a good cyclist!) Anyway, today's trip was fun and felt great. More confidence again!

We were in Achison, Kansas, as we got on the bridge to cross the Missouri River. That city was a stop on the "Border Raiders" bike trip that Bill and I took in 2007. We really didn't see much of that city today, en route to the bridge. Achison, Kansas, is the birthplace of Amelia Earhart, incidentally.

The bridge over the Missouri River, at least this one, is pretty old and pretty frightening. There is really no shoulder to the road. While you are actually on the bridge you need to ride really fast and get over it quickly. The road surface on the bridge is a semi-covered grating.

Regardless, we all safely made it to St. Joseph, Missouri.

This is the city in which Jesse James was killed, that by a bounty-seeking member of his own gang.

I did have a minor accident today, almost at the end of the ride. For reasons which still escape me, I did crash. At the time, there were only 7 to 8 miles left in the entire ride, and we were well within the city limits of St. Joseph. I was following Chris, at a very relaxed and reasonable speed, into a left turn. I was very alert, relaxed, and comfortable at the time. I was feeling well, so I really don't know what happened. As I was in the left turn however, I lost balance and actually fell to the right. This happened so fast that I did not have time to click out of the pedals.

Pretty embarrassing, but I guess this can happen to even the most experienced cyclists. No explanation..., I just fell. I thought about telling Marsha that I fell because I lost control as I was heroically riding my bike, as protection, in between a pregnant woman with young children, and three rabid and vicious dogs. Sadly, she is not stupid, so she is not about to believe that story. I didn't even try to make something up, as an explanation; she is well aware that I am a klutz. I might as well admit to that.

I now sport limited road rash on the lateral aspects of my right leg and right arm. There is also a right hip hematoma. Oh well. Those things happen!

(No Marsha, I did NOT have syncope. I am just a klutz.)

Abilene, Kansas to Topeka, Kansas

WOW!!! Whoever says or thinks that Kansas is flat has obviously not spent any time traveling in this part of the state! Today we traveled for 106 miles of truly relentless (merciless) "roller coaster" hills! Unbelievably scenic, but this was a really, really difficult ride.

(It is funny how "scenic" and "difficult" are adjectives that commonly link together, at least in the context of bicycle travel!)

Yesterday was a great rest day in Abilene. I did go to the Eisenhower museum, and that was well worth the trip. Eisenhower grew up, from probably the age of 3 years, to high school graduation, in Abilene, Kansas. I learned quite a lot there, both about the times and about the man. I found myself intrigued with his early and military years, more than with the Presidential years. I am left with the feeling that he was a genuinely good human being. He was someone, it seems, who would quietly, but powerfully, simply do the right thing. He was an intelligent and wise man, with principles also. He may not have been the most showy, or eloquent, of his generation of statesmen, but he was a guy who just knew what was right, and did it. When General Patton refused to see the death camps, because he thought that it might make him sick, General Eisenhower went to see them himself. As he stated, he wanted to be able to be a true and direct eyewitness himself, lest anyone later allege that the Holocaust was only a lie or propaganda.

If he was alive, I would have a beer with Eisenhower. I would have a beer with Jimmy Carter, also. I wouldn't have a beer with anyone else in Washington.

Michel got a haircut yesterday, declining on the Eisenhower museum. Craig got a haircut also. They both look distinguished now. I don't. (Now there's a surprise!)

Back to today's ride, this was truly a challenge. We did not get any of the predicted intermittent thunderstorms, happily enough, but that statement is the sum total of our good luck with today's ride. We had remarkable heat, humidity, and a relentless headwind constantly in our faces. What I found most demanding was the equally relentless roller coaster hills. I remember well when Bill Pearson and I saw similar topography, back in our 2007 "Border Raiders" ride. There was then a road in southwestern Iowa that had, as I recall, 90 hills in 30 miles. I believe the local people called that section of road the "serpent's back". We had that today, all the way between Abilene and Topeka. The wind in our faces made it extra tough. We did over 6,000 ft. of total climbing today.

In that regard, I really have to express gratitude to the good people of this part of the state of Kansas. They have so many American flags out flying. All day long, all I had to do was to look for the ubiquitous American flag, as I proceeded on my way. I was never in doubt of my correct route, as the folks here managed to arrange it so that the flags always pointed directly away from where my bike should be heading. Even when the road took a curve or turn, those flags were always kept pointing perfectly opposite to my direction of travel. I wonder how they do that.

We still had fun. At one point this morning, I was riding in a group of five. There was Bill, Craig, Chris, Doug, and me. We went by a field where there was a small group of five cows, all looking at us, and all very close to the road. What ensued was spontaneous (and enthusiastic) mooing sounds made from all five of us! None of us, all of whom may be arguably considered responsible and mature adults, seemed to think that making mooing noises at cows would be inappropriate or unusual. (Bill make the best sounds.) None of the cows seemed impressed, although I was able to see that one of the cows was a bit annoyed. She didn't comment, probably out of her politeness, but she did look very annoyed.

By the time I made it to the 91 mile mark today, my legs were largely functioning like rubber. I stopped at a gas station. I bought there a candy bar and a Gatoraide. Those were consumed while sitting on a curb at the site. I took the time then to also re-think my life. After ten minutes or so, I felt marginally refreshed. Getting back on the bike however, my legs informed me that they were far from refreshed. The last 15 miles were more than slow.

Topeka, Kansas, today, St. Joseph, Missouri, tomorrow. Another state line! (Tomorrow will be an 85 mile ride and, I am certain, more of these roller coaster hills!)