Day thirty-seven – so hard to believe! 10 riding days left including today. How have we come this far?
Today was a return to the hills and climbs, but nothing terrible – mostly shorter bursts and none too steep. The scenery was beautiful as we rolled out of the more traditional farmland of corn – we grow a LOT of corn in this country – and into rolling hills and beautiful trees starting to change color.
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Today marked day 36 of our ride meaning we have 10 rides left before reaching the coast of Portland, Maine on October 6. It’s somewhat hard to believe that we have come this far. We still have hard days ahead, but we are all mindful that they are no harder than the days we’ve ridden thus far, and we feel that much stronger today than we did 36 days ago.
Someone asked me my least favorite part of this ride, and I couldn’t think of anything that I didn’t like… with one exception. I find the end of every ride somewhat difficult. Depending on the day, sometimes it’s the last 30 miles, sometimes the last 20 and sometimes the last 10 or even 5. I find that counting down rather than counting up is better on the mind. I’ve referred to this in other posts. What I realized today is that we are at that point where we are counting down the days – not up. I continue to count how many days we’ve ridden, but I’m far more focused on how many days we have left.
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Today was the second longest ride of the trip at 120 miles crossing from Michigan into our tenth state of Ohio. The ride turned into 123 miles with a few construction detours along the way. We had a relatively early start at 7:15 am expecting it to rain most of the day. We were all decked out in our rain gear only to find that it didn’t rain – a welcome surprise! I did keep my rain jacket on most of the day as my upper body hazmat protection from the dirt and grime of the road. As we ride by a fair amount of roadkill, one can only wonder how much ‘just decomposed’ materials we have ridden over along the way. The afternoon brought sunshine and warmer weather with drier roads making the raincoat unnecessary and too warm.
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Every day we are out riding on this epic adventure is a gift and a blessing. I offer up prayers of gratitude for that every day – and for the strength and mental fortitude of the riders. I ask for it to continue every day. Not every day, however, will have you feeling fantastic. Today’s ride from Holland to Marshall was that for me.
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Change can be a good thing – or it can set you slightly off kilter. Day thirty-three was a day of change that was welcome but also set us slightly off kilter.
The day started with breakfast at seven which is usually a little challenging because those of us who are early-risers are hungry by the time seven in the morning rolls around. The service in the restaurant was slow, but the latte was good making the waiting worthwhile. Everything else about the day would be structured slightly differently than usual.
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We broke our rest day fast by riding just over 86 miles from Madison to Milwaukee today. In some ways it’s hard to get back on the bike, but in some ways it’s a relief to continue. The first few miles tend to require a little shake out of the legs. Our bikes were tended to by the Trek technicians over the last 24 hours and we found clean and fresh tires and frames upon starting this morning. Sometimes it’s the little things – like the new blinged up name tags on the bikes. Mine had been coming off for some time and was catching on my right leg. Marty, one of the guides, had taped it down at some point – but when I returned from dinner last night and my bike was in my room so I could charge my power pedal – I saw that there was a new sticker with my name further up towards the handle bars so as to not interfere with my pedal stroke. I’m not sure what happened earlier, but I did have bruising on the inside of my right knee at some point from hitting my knee against the frame.
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Ah… the much needed and looked forward to rest-day in Madison. I love being on the bike and this entire experience, but I also like a break on the legs and a break on the butt every now and then. There is something to be said for not having to wake up in the morning and get on a bike for the entire day. Today was no exception.
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While a shorter ride today, we were almost giddy with delight as we knew we were riding into Madison with a half-day today, and a rest day tomorrow. The route was similar to yesterday, but only half the distance. We still had a few punchy climbs along the way, but we knew that we had no riding on the calendar for tomorrow.
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We started out together from La Crosse, sad to leave our luxurious hotel and surroundings. Thankfully, we were fueled by excellent coffee and a delicious breakfast. The scrambled eggs were REAL eggs and cooked slightly soft – exactly how I like them. The bacon was crispy and thick – yum. We had fresh crusty sourdough bread for toast that was delicious even if it was too big to fit in the toaster. Finally, there was what appeared to be homemade granola and plain Greek yoghurt – again, yum!
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We’ve been in our mostly self-organized groups for more than a week at this point. It took some time for us to find our place, but we did. Our group was considered ‘the slowest’ group and drew the early time slot to leave in the mornings. We were okay with it because a/ we don’t care and b/ we have the opportunity to watch the sunrise in the morning on many days getting to experience the most beauty in the early morning portion of the ride.
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