Cycling Coast to Coast

This is a back-dated post.  I was responsible for posting to the trip journal on this day, so I’m posting the text of that post here.

After the craziness of the previous two days, today’s ride was the fun and relaxing ride that I (and I’m sure many other riders) needed. We had a century in store for us, but the terrain promised to be more forgiving than the previous couple of days. As we head further west, the heat becomes a greater and greater issue, so we try and hit the road early. However, when we woke up in the morning, it was cool and foggy outside, and it proved to mostly be a pleasant day, weather-wise.

Because it was such a long riding day, we had two lunches planned; one around mile 35 in Hartville, and another around mile 75 in Rogersville. I rode by myself at a relaxed pace for most of the day. When you spend every waking and sleeping moment with 30 other people for 2 months, after a while everyone needs their alone time, and as Kyle M. puts it, “your only private time is riding time.”

After first lunch, we rode through Amish country, and I followed behind a family in a horse cart for about half a mile before passing them. A few miles down the road, I stopped to take pictures of a huge field of hay bales, and the same family passed me. Once we reached the town of Seymour, however, I caught up with them again as they had “parked” the horse and cart at a McDonalds. I also took the opportunity to bike through the drive-in and get a small order of fries, something I’ve wanted to do since the beginning of the trip.

Right after the McDonalds, I turned onto US 60, which is a busy road with lots of truck traffic. Thankfully, there was a wide shoulder, but it wasn’t well paved. I also noticed dark clouds ahead, and started to hear thunder, so I pulled off the road and took shelter at an abandoned gas station while it rained. Once the thunder stopped, I got back on the road, but while the thunder had passed, the rain started up again, and I got rained on for a few miles.

Not too long afterwards, I arrived at second lunch in Rogersville, only to discover that Lenny and Allie had scored us some food donations, and so we had a huge tray of spaghetti bolognese and some Subway sandwiches. Most of the food had been eaten by the time I arrived, but I still managed to have a delicious bowl of spaghetti, which was much more appetizing than the PB&J sandwich I had been expecting.

I left second lunch with Emily and Lynn, and we rode together for the rest of the day. The last few miles before Springfield had some awesome rollers–hills with short steep descents that let you build up enough momentum to fling yourself up the next climb without having to pedal much, or even pedal at all.

Once in Springfield, we showered at our host location and had a delicious dinner prepared by our dinner crew. We had salad, chicken, and an awesome vegetarian stew. Nancy, who was from the Springfield Habitat chapter, provided us with the groceries, and also gave a short presentation about the great work the local Habitat chapter has been doing, and about the work we would be doing tomorrow, at the Blitz Build. But that’s another story, for whoever is doing tomorrow’s journal entry.