Finally: Bob does ride to Boston!

After 880 miles (plus the previous 2.550) the end was in sight, the ocean was right in front of us, we had only to walk over the sands to dip the front wheel into the Atlantic. Wow...what a journey it has been.
Twenty-five riders (along with numerous supportive family including Susan) assembled in a gray light rain and began the last twenty miles to complete the long cross country journey that started at Manhattan Beach in California and concluded at Revere Beach just north of Boston. Every one of us had a story: there were two father/daughter combinations, one man doing the ride in memory of his wife, a woman who was struck with a near fatal illness and has waited 5 years to recover; two of us suffered serious accidents on a previous tour, spent months healing broken bones and came back to finish the journey. We all rode two by two through the suburban streets with our support vans as escorts front and rear. With our flags flying and the escorts honking horns I'm sure the folks on their morning commute wondered just who these idiots were who chose to ride city streets through the rain.
It took us maybe 90 minutes to get to the beach and as we turned the final corner (photo below) a cheering crowd of family and friends was on the opposite corner...I saw Susan immediately - and can say truly that after a long solitary effort was thrilled to have someone I love to share the final moments of the journey. I thought about this moment when I read the blogs of my mates from the 2009 ride in my hospital bed and I have probably thought and imagined the scene at least once a day since then.
We rode the final yards, dismounted and carried our bikes to ocean for the final ritual of standing in Atlantic water and dipping the wheel - all of us shaking hands, families snapping photos and yelling congratulations, a few over-exuberant folks just plunged right in and celebrated with a dunking. The rain had stopped, the gray skies persisted but it was a glorious moment for each of us.
We celebrated last night with a closing banquet at the hotel where we could tell stories, make a couple of speeches and generally start to try to understand what the whole experience would mean to us. Just as each of us has his/her own story each of us will be processing this experience in our own individual way I am sure.
I have had a sense of incompleteness for four years. The goal seemed so very close when I went down in Marysville and I have never stopped waiting for the right moment to finish this ride. Even more, I love cycling and was determined I would come back on my own terms. I think I rode strong for each of these 880 miles and I know I enjoyed every day - the long days, the hills, and even the rainy days. I also enjoyed the people. It was a fantastic group of riders and I felt a part of the group almost from day one.
I will be thinking about this experience for many days, probably weeks - and Susan will be hearing stories that might seem to go on forever.
The father of a twenty-eight year old rider made a short congratulatory speech last night that included one line that sticks with me...."There are some 250 million people in America and last week they probably did nothing more remarkable than go to work, watch a little TV and repeat the process the next day. The riders in this room have just crossed an entire continent, climbed mountains, rode through deserts, braved rain and heat and did it all on their bicycles - that is truly remarkable and I congratulate you all."
Not often do we get the opportunity to meet a challenge, prove ourselves to ourselves and know in our own inner being that truly we have done something remarkable. It's a feeling I will savor for awhile.

Triple state day...part 2

And so to continue....
We rode through downtown Brattleboro one more time heading for the Connecticut river and another state line crossing. The day would see us going from Vermont, through New Hampshire and into Massachusetts for dinner. Again, I am surprised to see almost immediately the unique character of New Hampshire. We followed the Connecticut river for several miles, a very pleasant sight off to our right hand. Most of the land was forest with occasional houses and even more occasional small farms.
We picked up a series of smaller rivers and true to the overall geography any number of hills. None of the latter were as long as yesterday but several were in the 2/3 mile range and several quite steep. Two of them showed portions at 22% on my Garmin. Fortunately we had an overcast day but no real rain Our first SAG was in New Hampshire and a local man saw us in the parking area and came running up to warn us there was a black bear wandering up and down the highway - fortunately the bear was a mile or so up the cross road not on our route but it did give us something to think about for the next few miles.
And so at mile 41 we hit the Massachusetts state line: the last state crossing of a 3400+ journey. Massachusetts also very definitely has it's own personality. While we continued to get the hills and beautiful scenery in Western Mass we also noticed some changes. The roads generally were as bad, i.e. potholes, narrower shoulders, as anything I had seen since Ohio. And the drivers: rude and impatient and they only get worse as we approach Boston.
We went through Lexington and Concord, both very historic and quaint New England towns. Concord, by the way, was home to Ralph Waldo Emerson the 19th century poet/philosopher and his home is nicely preserved as a museum. Concord was about 10 miles from our destination hotel Burlington (northern suburb of Boston) and just as I took my final photo it started to sprinkle with very dark clouds looking like there was more on the way. The ancient streets in these old towns can sometimes be very confusing and that was certainly the case for me (and, I found out later a couple of others as well) and as the rain started to become a serious downpour I became very lost for the first time of the entire tour. I asked directions of everyone from UPS drivers to folks simply walking their dogs and, in hindsight, got some very unhelpful answers Long story short, I came upon a group of cyclists out for an after-work in the rain and after a couple of questions found they were headed for Burlington and invited me to join them. By this time the rain was simply pouring down, the streets were full of commuter traffic, and Susan was sitting at the hotel getting more frantic by the moment (and all I could do was one quick phone call to assure her I was OK and would make it in soon). In the end I did 102 miles (my very true century) and was in fact last one in for the day. I was a wet, sodden mess - the comparison to a drowned rat comes to mind. Needless to say I rushed to get a hot shower and used a substantial quantity of the Hilton's hot water reserves. And we did just a tad more climbing than the day before: 5700 feet. Some day, dinner with Susan and some wine for both of us was most welcome.

Triple state day...

Life and the time demands of the tour kind of got in the way of the blog the last couple of days. We had our first taste of rain - which demands a visit to the hotel laundry - and a couple of days of heavy duty climbing which is a big motivator for an early bedtime.
In any case we left Albany with a cue sheet that promised some real hills on our way to Vermont. Once out of the city - always a fun time given our 7:00 AM departures - we were back into the rolling Northern NY landscape although it was muted just a bit by a lightly falling rain. And that rain would follow us just about all day. Fortunately it was warm and to be honest the overcast sky kept the sun from pounding on us going up the hills. Our first SAG was one of the best - they set up at a Dunkin Donuts and much as I know that the Dunkin product is not exactly the best fuel for cyclist consuming in excess of 5,000 calories that lemon cream filled creation sure tasted good. We hit the Vermont state line at about 30 miles and could almost feel the difference. The green was greener, the terrain more hilly, and the views more sweeping and grand. Our first major town was Bennington and what a lovely little New England city it is. High spired churches, old houses for the most part loving kept up, and of course a monument on the village green in the center of town. Among other things we stopped at marvelous old church graveyard ("old" as in easily dating back to the early 18th century) and visited the grave of the poet Robert Frost. His epitaph: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."
Much of the rest of the day was spent in heavy duty climbing that began with a 7.1 mile climb with a grade that ranged from 12 to 16% almost the entire way. There was an incredible descent on the other side that, had the highway not been so wet, would have lent itself to record speeds. My best for the day was 40mph but I was feathering the brakes all the way down. That, of course was not the end of the climbing. Our next big one was Hogback Mountain, the site of one of Vermont's many ski resorts. The photo from the top is below. Again, a fantastic descent that was long and fun but done with much caution. We ended in Brattleboro, another neat little town that also has an artistic, almost hippie kind of subculture. The sun finally came out and we had a marvelous dinner at a roadside bar-b-q overlooking a small lake and gorgeous view of the value and mountains. For the record it was 79 miles with 5,600 feet of climbing - not too difficult to fall asleep that night.

The Mohawk Valley

We had a relatively short day and so were given a sleep-in this morning. That means up at 6:30 and out on the road at 8:00. One of the really good things about that is that the sun has already up and well over the horizon so we are not riding directly into it. "Relatively short" meant 71 miles today with only about 2500 hundred feet of climbing. It was, however, another very hot and humid day and we were all moving to get in to the hotel (in Latham just outside of Albany) before the predicted thunderstorms hit. And I will tell you it is pouring right now but I think everyone did get in pre-storm (I did).
We followed the Mohawk River for most of the route today and riding through the Mohawk valley was a lovely way to spend the day. Similar in some ways to previous days there were lots of farms, a whole series of small towns that at one time depended on the river for their economies and are mostly struggling shells of former prosperity. At the same time the countryside is very pretty and we had lots of lovely view. The roads are, again, in good shape and built with wide shoulders for cyclists. Towards the end of the day we rode through Schnectady, the largest city we have seen in the last few days. All I can say is that it reminded me of downtown Trenton, or maybe a smaller version of Detroit. My riding partner for today was again Don Beherens who lives in Albany and among other things he told me that GE once employed 60,000 people there but that number is now down to 6,000. It shows on the streets and we were happy to get through and out of town.
We did move right along today and so I have only a couple of photos. Tomorrow we move into Vermont and I hear rumors that we will be experiencing the Green Mountains for a couple of days...should be fun.

Upstate New York: the familiar and not so familiar

Yesterday seemed like a long day although it really was not. It was advertised as a 68 mile day (my Garmin recorded 70) with only moderate climbing - again the Garmin recorded a little over 3000 feet. However, we were given a sleep-in until 6:30 with and 8:00 start. The day was hot and humid (one of the Brits asked me at dinner last night to define the difference between 'humid' and 'muggy' - huh?) and that necessitated a couple of extra stops for cold chocolate milk and later for a root beer float - all prime fuel for cyclists. So last night I did, ate dinner, and went to bed - done for the day.
Yesterdays route from the Finger Lakes to Liverpool (suburb of Syracuse) was a good one in spite of the heat. We went through a number of old, historic New York towns, many of which I had gone through with the Anchor House rides a few years ago. Geneva is a pretty little town, home to Hobart and Smith colleges, Waterloo where Memorial Day was started after the Civil War, and Seneca Falls which in the late 1800s was the birthplace of the drive for women's right to vote and women's rights in general. Geneva also offered a lovely long ride down the east side of Seneca Lake, another of the Finger lakes. We were heading for the town of Camillus and the first view of the Erie Canal which, of course was the cause and source of much prosperity and development in years gone by.
And one other highlight for all of us - we passed our 3000 mile mark for the trip and so had the appropriate photos to save the moment.
This morning was back to regular wake-up and leaving at 7:00. The first bank we passed showed the temperature at 87 degrees - what does that tell you about the rest of the day? We navigated our way around Syracuse and were pretty much out in the country again at about the 15 mile point. Much of today's route took us past the Erie Canal and some of the park system they have built around it. We passed through the little town of Canastota with it's historic buildings fronting some of the restored canal and then rode alongside the canal for many miles. Although it was hot and muggy all day the New York state roads for the most part are fantastic. And today was as good as we have had anywhere: lots of newly pave, very smooth surfaces and wide shoulders - nice. And to make the day even better we had only 2100 feet of climbing today. I rode with two different groups today but all were excellent riders and we did a good strong pace.
One picture will show what is billed as the world's smallest church and is on the edge of one of the many small towns we went through. I know there are a number of other claimants to this title (we saw one in South Carolina a couple of years ago) but it claims to be available for weddings although I don't know how one would get through all the pond scum to get out there.
Tonight we are in Little Falls, a town that appears to be an old mill town that is somehow hanging on by it's fingernails. The temperature was supposedly 101 when we got here. After a quick shower we wandered down to the little touristy area at the riverfront and found a delightful ice cream shop - a hot fudge sundae after a 79 mile jaunt in the sun - life is good!

Reunion Saturday

The morning started in utter confusion in the hotel dining room. I'm guessing that the normal breakfast hours start at maybe 6:30 or 7:00. But this bunch of riders is an early morning crew. People were milling about at 5:45 looking for a meal and the one poor girl assigned to get everything ready was literally running for her life. Cereal was out but no milk; syrup was there but nothing out to make the waffles...etc, etc. She did eventually get everything out and everybody was pretty cool about the situation but for awhile it looked like we would all need to head out to Denny's.
I was halfway through my breakfast when a familiar face came over to our table. Don Behrens who had ridden on the Maine/Florida ride lives in this area and he got up early, rode to the hotel and was going to ride with me/us to the first SAG stop. He is good guy and a very good rider so after the surprise of seeing him and getting reacquainted I was very happy to have his company for the first thirty miles. We did, of course, get some photos and this time included Jan and Hank who we missed on Monday when Larry joined us. We also got a photo with Tracy and Tom Dunn who of course were also on the ride.
And the second reunion of the day was at  the second SAG where Beverly and Scott who also on the Maine to Florida ride were there to greet us. Again we spent a bit of time exchanging stories and insisting that we all looked pretty good before I had to get back on the bike and get on my way.
Hamburg is basically a small town suburb of Buffalo and it was one of several pretty little towns that we rode through this morning. We rode down streets with well kept older homes, the kind that have real front porches that people sit on looking over their lawns and watching the world go by. We got out on highway 20 and headed into what was mostly country for the rest of the way. The vineyards of yesterday gave way to mostly dairy farms with lots and lots of cows and, naturally, that wonderful smell that all those cows and their byproducts produce. Not entirely unpleasant but I'm happy it is confined to the farms and isn't part of my backyard. The countryside was nice but not particularly inspiring so I did not take a lot of photos.
The main thrust of the day from a riding standpoint was that, first, it was another long day - I logged 94 miles. And it was again a day of hills. With a couple of exceptions where the gradient hit 16 and 17 % they were not that steep but were long climbs and came at us one right after another. That makes the downhills lots of fun but they are not any work at all and of course are also over much more quickly than the climbs where the speed will drop to 7 or 8 mph or less if it is a steep hill. I can remember very few stretches today where we had any significant stretches of straight level cycling. It was low gear to crest a hill, ride it down and go right back up again. For the day my Garmin showed a little over 4700 feet of climbing. We also had a fairly hot and humid day today although we were blessed with a pretty nice tailwind most of the way. I stopped with four others at a roadside ice cream shop about 5 miles out of Canandaigua and a root beer float never tasted so good.
Tonight's dinner was a different kind of treat. There is a huge Wegmans right across from the hotel and that was our scheduled dinner stop for tonight. Most of the riders had never heard of Wegmans let alone actually experience one and they were totally overwhelmed with the choices for meals. And even I, who  is very familiar with our Princeton Wegmans was surprised with the size and variety of prepared food/meals that were available. The meal was terrific and they even allow the sale of beer and wine to go with the meal - again, nice end to a challenging but fun day. Tomorrow it is on to Syracuse and we have a short day, 68 miles. We will get up and hour later and get a little more sleep - yea!

Back on the road....to Hamburg New York

After a sleep in yesterday the wake up call at 5:20 was a rude jolt back to reality. However, the hotel put on a terrific breakfast - even Starbucks coffee - and by 6:45 we were ready to roll. One of the things about heading to Boston is that we leave early enough that the sun is just rising over the horizon - or the buildings depending on where we are. But no matter it is always in our eyes for the first several miles. This morning we were moving  through fairly light traffic but city traffic nonetheless and I went out in a group of 5 led by one of the British father/daughter combinations. At the third stoplight (we had caught  every red light to that point) I was blinded momentarily and almost  missed the fourth red light. Five minutes later our leader missed a turn due to the same sunshine and we went a couple of blocks too far on a one-way street...nothing to do but get up on the sidewalk and return to the right street. Five miles out we came upon a bridge out and had to cross over some private property and a small wooden bridge and then wend our way back to the street and continue on our way. No more mishaps but more than enough drama to start the day.
We came into New York, now my second state crossing, at about the 20 mile point and, of course took the requisite photos. I often wonder what passing motorists think when they see 6 to 10 brightly garbed folks all standing around a pretty ordinary state marker sign - maybe some sort of strange cult that dances around highway signs and performs exotic rituals upon entering into new territories.
The route today pretty tracked Lake Erie for the first fifty miles or so. We would get glimpses of the lake through the homes and trees that line the shore and occasionally a wide viewing area of blue water. Although Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes the view from the road is akin to seeing the ocean - blue water as far as one can see broken only by an occasion boat far offshore. And on both sides of the road for miles and miles were vineyards one right after the other - the totally replaced  the soy and corn we have been seeing up to this point, The roads were good today as was the weather and there were hills but not anything close to what we had seen earlier in the week.
With about twenty miles to go we left Route 5 and the Lake Erie and headed more to the Southeast and toward Hamburg. We went through one area that is apparently the locus for the Seneca Indian tribe. For five or six miles all the gas stations offered tax free gas (not that cheap, best I saw was $3.22) and cheap cigarettes and tobacco products. Just a few miles shy of Hamburg when I was kind of feeling we were out in the middle of nowhere we passed over a beautiful gorge that is pictured below. I'm sure it has a name and story but could find no one to enlighten me.
With the lack of wind and hills today was another gorgeous day for cycling and while I stopped a few times there were moments I was really flying. For the day it was 80 miles (did I ever think that I might be calling that an easy day?) at about a 15.5 average speed. A very good day.

Sittin by the dock of the bay....In Erie, Pa.

So for starters it appears that I have corrected my little problem with the screen display and so will try cover some of the ground of the last couple of days.
Tom Ryan decided not to ride on Tuesday and so I bid him a farewell and a very real thank-you for not only the ride but even more joining me for that first day's ride.
Tuesday was supposed to be a bit less hilly but that turned out to be a bit of false advertising. The hills were still there but spread out a little more over the entire day and perhaps not quite so steep. In fact we did about 95 miles and by the end of the day had climbed a couple of hundred feet more than the day before...something in the neighborhood of 4500 feet. Grinding out those steep hills of Monday took a toll on my knee, especially the left one. As we got somewhere around the 60 mile point on Tuesday I was really hurting and felt like I was doing 90% of my pedaling with only my right leg. Fortunately I joined up with a couple of guys who were doing a very sensible pace and I managed to stay with them and finally roll into the hotel in Niles under my own power. Other than that it was a very nice day. A bit overcast but no rain and that holds the heat down and good for folks on a bike. I didn't take any pictures primarily because I was so focused on the knee and simply getting from point a to point b. The country side of Ohio continues to surprise and amaze me. It was almost all rolling farm country - lots of corn and soy beans, some dairy cattle and the occasional horse farm. In any case everything is a kind of natural quilt of various shades of green mixed with the occasional browns of hay or (what I guess) winter wheat that has a golden hue. It is still strawberry season and so the SAGs have featured farm fresh strawberries the support folks have bought at farms along the way.
I went to bed Tuesday night with a bit of trepidation. Firstly because I would have to awaken by myself and with my good ear/bad ear situation I have been known to have the good ear buried in a pillow and sleep up to an hour with the alarm clock singing futilely in the background. I set the clock radio to an awful rock station and turned it up loud and lo and behold it worked. Of course, I did not check with the folks in the adjacent room to see if they too woke up at 5:20...fortunately I will never know. So for seconds I was also fearful of what the knee situation would be. We left the hotel at 7 heading due east and right into the rising sun, made a quick right turn (more sun) and right into a long hill. I had a bit of pain going up but paced myself, found an easy gear and to make a long story shorter, after a few miles on fairly flat ground I found the pain disappeared and I could kick up the speed a bit and pretty soon I found myself pedaling with full strength and no pain.
And as it turned out Wednesday was easily the best of the week. The temps started cold (50 degrees in a short-sleeve jersey) but the sun was out and it warmed up soon enough but then never really went above 70 - couldn't ask for a better day. Again, the really beautiful countryside - lots of farms, a couple of Amish farms with the laundry out on the line and the solemn looking kids waving to us we ride by and I do have a couple of photos at the end. We ended the day at about 95 miles (second day in a row) and climbing at about 4500 feet.
One of the real highlights of the day was our second SAG. We stopped at a root beer stand in the little town of Conneaut just a few miles shy of the Pennsylvania border. But this was not just any root beer stand. They already had lines of customers as we drifted in and we discovered why. They specialize in a humongous root beer float as well as a shredded turkey sandwich served on a bun with their secret (of course) spices sauces. It was to die for and we all enjoyed every bit of the food before heading out for the last 35 miles of the day. The next stop was my first state crossing into Pennsylvania and naturally we took the requisite photos. We headed Northeast along the Lake Erie shoreline but inland by a mile or so and while you could sense the nearness of water you never really saw it. Along the way I came upon a camper with a bike parked next to it and stopped out of curiosity. It turned out to be a guy about my age from North Carolina who was doing his own cross country bike tour. He started in Bar Harbor Maine and was headed for the state of Washington. His wife was driving the van and alternately playing tourist and serving as SAG when he needed to stop for the day. He was also trying to raise money for three different charities and was a most interesting guy to talk to. I found that I was in his blog last night so I'm returning the favor.
We worked our way into downtown Erie and to our hotel which is right on the waterfront. And last night someone in the group had arranged for us to get tickets for the local AA baseball game (the team turns out to be a farm team for the Detroit Tigers- couldn't pass that up) and so dinner was ballpark food and a couple of beers. One of the fun parts of the game was watching three or four of our British riders who had never seen a baseball game before. One of the women on the ride is also an ardent Tigers fan and she did a marvelous running commentary for the Brits explaining what is a catcher, a foul ball, a double play...all the stuff we don't even think about. And, BTW, the good guys won - a pitchers duel decided by a home run.
And finally, today was a blessed sleep in day followed by a very leisurely breakfast and the doing of housekeeping chores. I did my laundry, cleaned and lubed the bike and took a quick walk into downtown. Not much there but did visit a Maritime museum around the corner that was delightful - lots of history (war of 1812 especially) in this area and it was fun.
So we are off tomorrow for another state crossing and will be in Hamburg New York tomorrow night. It promises to be a good day for weather and a bit shorter at 80 something miles.
Photos are below....enjoy.

Testing, testing

I have a new PC which can be problem enough but this one came blessed with Windows 8 - not my choice but it was part of the deal. For any who may have seen my last post I had a couple of techie problems and just when I thought I had it fixed the margins went crazy on me. I will be posting this shortly to see if I have got my format back and later will get up a real blog.........

Ninety-nine miles and counting...

Susan's cookies at the SAG
 

The Maine/Florida boys
 

Today's scenery

No more "sitting in Marysville" - today was for real and the alarm went off at 5:00 to get us up and moving. An early breakfast at the hotel and we were on the road at 7:10. Tom and I were among the last to leave but we set a fairly easy but quick pace through Marysville and on to eventually reach Wooster. The main order of business in the early stages of todays route as far as I was concerned was to reach and ride through the intersection that was the scene of the accident four years ago. I had already marked the cue sheet and it was coming at approximately the 20 mile point. I was not particularly nervous but I did want to get to the scene and get through with it as efficiently as possible. Most of the first 17 or 18 miles was flat to rolling farmland, all very pleasant riding in the early morning sun and the mists that arose from last night's rain. When we finally arrived at THE intersection my feelings were almost anticlimactic. I have no memory of the accident and so no memory of what the intersection looked like - it was busy with morning traffic but nothing was familiar to me. I think crossing and turning left was more of an issue to Tom and some of the CrossRoads folks than it was for me. I took a very conservative approach to crossing and making the left turn, we basically skipped the lane changes and crossed in pedestrian format. In any event we made it safely through the intersection and within a quarter mile had made a turn taking us back onto a secondary road with farms on either side: and just like that it was over, history and we could go on and enjoy the ride.
(Ed.note: just as I wrote that last line yesterday the computer flipped out and shut me down. I got some advice from one of my colleagues on the ride and am now finishing a day later)
Most of the early ride was Ohio farmland with rolling hills and beautiful scenery. I could have taken dozens of photos but with 90+ miles to cover the one above will have to do. Early on in the day Tom and I teamed up with a couple of Brits, a father and daughter combination. The were a delight to ride with and we stayed with them for maybe 30 miles or so. After the 1st SAG stop we had a stretch of mostly flat terrain and Toms memory of his previous ride kicked in and so jacked up the speed a bit and had a really good time for the next many miles riding in high gear and watching the speedometer hover right around 20 mph,
At the second SAG we had a couple of treats. First was the plate-full of double chocolate chip cookies that Susan had made before I left and sent along with us. They were wonderful, the perfect food for the hills in the last third of the ride and enjoyed by all. And the second treat was the arrival of one of our fellow riders from the Maine to Florida ride. He (Larry Friedman by name) drove down from Ann Arbor and biked out from Wooster to the SAG stop so that he could join us for the ride back to the hotel. It was good to see him again and doubly good to be riding again.
So, finally, that last third of the ride. We had be warned it would be hilly but the warnings did not do it justice. We did about 4500 feet of climbing for the day and I do believe 90% of that came in the last segment. It was simply one long hill after another and most of them quite steep. I was watching my Garmin and the gradients ranged from 8 to as high as 18%. It was fun in a kind of strange way but also a challenge and certainly we were glad to get to the hotel and shower and cool down.
So for the first day of this little project 99 miles (I know, I could have added another mile by riding around the block a couple of times but I liked the sound of 99) with about 4500 feet of climbing in 6 and a half hours of riding...a great beginning.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            



Marysville,Ohio...

Was up very early (for me) yesterday and Susan drove me and the bike over to meet Tom at 6:30 to load up and head out for Ohio. The trip went well: no rain, only one missed turn and we pulled into Marysville late afternoon in time for dinner. Among other things Susan baked a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies to contribute to the group's SAG treats...so we tried a few on the trip just to be sure they would be acceptable and I can attest that they are good stuff.
So we found a great little local spot in downtown Marysville (real old fashioned small town of the Midwest) for breakfast  this morning and had breakfast with the local citizenry. We were thinking of catching a quick ride but the gray skies and raindrops will keep us in the hotel. So we are waiting for the group to get in...they will be riding in the rain but will have a nice tailwind today. I am looking to catch tonight's "route rap", the nightly briefing on the next day's ride and having the flag attached to my bike. All that will make this little adventure seem real. The weather forecast is for clouds but no rain tomorrow - I am optimistic. So....Let's ride!

Countdown to Marysville...

Nature reclaiming what was left at the side of the road.

After thinking about it off and on for four years I'm only a few days from resuming and finally completing the cross country ride that was so rudely interrupted in 2009. The weather here has been a little crazy recently but today was gorgeous and perfect for a (probably) last ride before heading to Ohio on Saturday. I have done three different rides in the low eighties (miles, that is) the last couple of weeks but was still a little uncertain of my readiness for some of the climbing and long days. So today I headed out to the hills of Hunterdon and then decided I would extend it a bit and see how I would do with distance as well. So I lit out for Frenchtown, a pretty little town on the Delaware. To make things a little more fun there was a steady wind out the north that was in my face for the entire trip. But blue skies and low humidity made it a perfect cycling day and even with the breeze in my face cruising up highway 29 was sheer joy. My average speed at the halfway point was not too good but I found a little sandwich shop right on the water, had my sandwich and soda and contemplated the return trip with a tail wind. Long story short: I did 95 miles (I know Mark - it's not an official C), about 4300 feet of climbing and brought my average speed up to a respectable 15 mph by the time I wheeled into the driveway. I was hoping for one more day tomorrow but they are predicting another round of thunder-storms the next couple of days so I think today may be the conclusion of the training - next ride will be for real.
And the photo above? I took it a few days ago simply because I was intrigued by the idea of the natural world taking over this symbol of the machine age....It will be interesting to see when the car finally disappears into all the greenery.

And finally...We've all been there, right? Maybe in a car, certainly on a bike and for me more than once over the years. Not too often though is there an actual sign to tell you what you might only have suspected and really didn't want to admit.

Cory's Ride

Yesterday was another scorcher - temps in the 90s and hardly a cloud in the sky. But thanks to a series of unlikely coincidences it turned into one of the best ride days of this young season.
Cory's ride is sponsored by Anchor House and is commemorative ride for Cory Golis, a young man (16) who was killed on an Anchor House ride 15 years ago. I still remember the shock I experienced picking up the paper on the morning after the accident. A scholarship fund was established in his memory and the Cory's ride has been a local event ever since. I have not done the ride since my own accident but saw a reminder on facebook on Friday morning. Coincidentally I got a call from my friend and former AH roomie and riding partner Mark Grasman looking to set up a ride for Saturday. Mark is a terrific rider but has been sidelined for a couple of years with heart issues and only recently got the medical OK to get back onto the bike. So after a series of back and forth phone messages we made arrangements to meet at 7:30 (very early for me!) and do the 50 mile course: perfect for Mark because (as I assured him) the area was mostly flat and for both of us we would be back before the worst of the heat and could relax with the picnic lunch and cold River Horse (beer). As it turned out nothing is ever that simple...For reasons we don't need to go into we got a late start and the sun was out and beating down on us almost immediately. We were among the last folks in the SAG at the 25 mile mark...although that did mean we had no competition for the ice and water. And my prediction of a flat ride was just a bit exaggerated. Somehow they found all the rollers they could build into the course and we ended up doing just shy of 2500 feet of climbing in a 49 mile ride - and given the mid-90s on the thermometer both of us were pretty much out of water the last couple of miles.
But it was truly one of the fun rides of the year...all the beautiful farm country of Millstone and Allentown/Crosswicks, lots of familiar folks from the Anchor House rides that I did for five years before the XC, and more than anything else a great reunion ride with Mark - and as we rolled into the picnic area at just about noon thank God the beer cooler was still full - a River Horse never tasted so good.