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.