
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.
The ride itself was relatively easy for us at this point. There were a few rolling hills early in the ride, but we settled into a decent 20 mph pace along some flat smoother surfaces with a slight tailwind. Later in the ride, even with a slight headwind, we were rolling along nicely at 17.8 – 18 mph and feeling great. We had our final rest stop at mile 101 leaving us what we thought was 20 miles left but turned out to be more like 22-23 miles. While we were all somewhat tired of riding, no one complained and said they felt sore or tired. We were all surprised at how good we felt so far into a long ride like we’d had.
The guides did an amazing job washing the grime and dirt off our bikes – they had become quite gritty over the last couple of days. We had an early dinner of Chipotle at the hotel leaving most ready to call it a day and head to bed to watch movies or television with our slightly later start tomorrow morning with our group – the first group – rolling out at 8:30 am.
Overall, a great day and a welcome surprise with the flat terrain and the weather. We are hoping the weather stays the same and we manage to avoid rain as we know the terrain will change in the next few rides with an increase in hills, even with a decrease in miles for a couple of days.
We’ll take what we can at this point with 35 days under our belt and less than two weeks left! It’s hard to believe. We already find ourselves commenting on the things we will miss about each other and our daily rides. For now, I’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep and a wonderful ride with my amazing new friends again tomorrow.