Today's Ride
The Stats
80 miles
3,442 ft. climbed
Miles Completed: 3,013Miles to Go: 383States Visited: 12 of 15Total Climbed: 94,022 ft.
The highlights: Sunshine, tailwinds, and crossing the 3,000 mile mark!!!
The challenges: Not getting ahead of myself and feeling like it's already done. Anything could happen. Still need to take it one day at a time.
Miles Completed: 3,013
Miles to Go: 383
States Visited: 12 of 15
Total Climbed: 94,022 ft.
The highlights: Sunshine, tailwinds, and crossing the 3,000 mile mark!!!
The challenges: Not getting ahead of myself and feeling like it's already done. Anything could happen. Still need to take it one day at a time.
The Ride
As someone commented at dinner, today was opposite day. While I may have used the George Costanza analogy before, it seemed particularly apt today. Compared to yesterday's rain, chilly wind, and muck, the day started with sunshine (and a song in tribute to it!), calm air, and perfect temps. We all enjoyed and daresay felt entitled to it! The ride was generally delightful -- like the kind of ride you'd voluntarily do on a weekend afternoon. Given our history over the last 6 weeks, the mileage wasn't too challenging, and the roads were well-paved (mostly), with rolling hills and pastoral, rural scenery, with some upscale residential neighborhoods in between. I believe us to be in the Rochester suburbs, but still saw lots of farmland, two animals I couldn't completely identify (were they just long-haired cows, or something else?), green and teal-colored barns, some baby deer (Bambi personified!) and calves, and some beautiful horses.
As someone commented at dinner, today was opposite day. While I may have used the George Costanza analogy before, it seemed particularly apt today. Compared to yesterday's rain, chilly wind, and muck, the day started with sunshine (and a song in tribute to it!), calm air, and perfect temps. We all enjoyed and daresay felt entitled to it! The ride was generally delightful -- like the kind of ride you'd voluntarily do on a weekend afternoon. Given our history over the last 6 weeks, the mileage wasn't too challenging, and the roads were well-paved (mostly), with rolling hills and pastoral, rural scenery, with some upscale residential neighborhoods in between. I believe us to be in the Rochester suburbs, but still saw lots of farmland, two animals I couldn't completely identify (were they just long-haired cows, or something else?), green and teal-colored barns, some baby deer (Bambi personified!) and calves, and some beautiful horses.
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| Are these just hairy cows??? Not sure what else they are! |
We also crossed some flowing rivers (in contrast to the dried up arroyos from weeks back), and passed through charming towns.
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| Mural testament to produce. |
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| Vets often have great murals! |
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| First time I dared to have a pizza mid-ride -- nothing disastrous! |
Note that upstate NY seems as patriotic as the rest of the country we've traversed. But for what it's worth, I didn't see any political signs accompanying the flags. We did see two women with Black Lives Matter signs in the town of Avon (probably the first we've seen on the trip), but still trying not to make this political either way, so just consider these to be objective observations of what I've seen, and not seen, in various places.Add to the day a nice lunch on the patio at the Thirsty Turtle, and some relaxing hang out time with the crew after dinner, and it was a good day all around!
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| A toast from the Thirsty Turtle--sorry we missed the turtle races! |
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| One of the better hotel hangouts! |
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| Did I take a wrong turn???? |
Employee of the Day
The award today goes to Carolina at the Chili's adjacent to our hotel. Not only did she cheerfully take the orders of the 20+ of us who all arrived at different times, but she went with the flow gracefully when we all decided not only to declare that it was Ron's birthday (when it wasn't) but to burst into cheers the likes of receiving an Oscar when each dish was auctioned off and delivered to its rightful owner. I guess you had to be there, but we made quite a ruckus! So thanks, Carolina.
For the record, there was nothing that bugged my parents (especially my dad) at a meal more than when they "auctioned off" the food. It was one of their (many) dining out pet peeves. Fortunately, they never ate at Chili's (nor had I until today).
Equipment Note
This morning, as we were getting ready to head off, Jill noticed her derailleur was "messed up" to say the least. Turned out it was broken beyond repair, and remains a mystery how it happened. Either way, she was in luck on two counts. First, Jean was going to a family event so her bike was available (and therefore wouldn't mess up Jill's EFI so far). Second, the Crossroads team sorted out finding the closest bike shop with an available and suitable part, brought the bike there, and returned it all fixed!
Two other tour riders have had to replace entire bikes at various points in the trip. One had an electronic shifter that no one could fix and another had a cracked frame discovered during the mid-trip safety check. They've both been able to continue the trip with replacement bikes, fortunately available at local bike shops.
Just as I was feeling fortunate how well my bike has held up, my gears turned funky on me and refused to shift into certain positions. After dinner, all was taken care of (I hope!). I'm trusting that the overhaul I had before the trip has helped keep everything up and running this far, and will take me over the finish line!
Also hoping not to have opposite day tomorrow and would prefer to repeat today's weather and ride conditions. Fingers crossed!
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but need to get to bed!
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