Day 7 - Bringing you back up to speed

We'll as was planned, we are taking today off and resting. It's a good reminder of Sabbath; intentionally setting aside time each week to say, "Yeah, there is still plenty to be done (or plenty of miles to be ridden), but for today, I am done doing (or riding). Today I will just be. I will rest and intentionally regain perspective of who I am and who God is and I will worship Him because He is who He says He is and He'll do the things He says He'll do. We will worship you God, for you are good. We will rest in you because you are our God."

Before I bring you up to speed on the happenings of the past two days, I'd like to apologize and explain why the content of the blog has been lacking for the past two days. Several faithful blog followers have asked why my posting has seemingly dwindled or ceased.

First of all, how awesome is it that people are following how our trip is going via this blog. It reassures me that the time I am putting into it is well worth it. So thank you. I do ask you understand that we may not always have internet access depending on where we are staying. Where there is not internet, there will be no access to the blog except on Mark's iPhone, which can do the job, but trying to type all of the content I want to post via an iPhone would take me approximately 8.638 hours per post (that's just an estimation of course). So please understand when I post something along the lines of "I don't have great internet connectivity right now, I'll update the blog as soon as I do" I mean it. I will post about our progress as often as I am able. Also understand that some of the posts, like the morning route updates, are scheduled to post automatically. I composed them weeks ago and set them up to post automatically on their respective mornings to save myself some time on the road. So just because a morning post shows up, doesn't necessarily assume I'll have internet access to do an evening update. Make sense? Great then let's get to the stuff you actually want to read....



... Day 5 UPDATE - Friday, September 4, 2009
To begin our weekend stretch we departed our hotel in Wheeling, WV to head off toward Richeyville, PA. The distance was short (only 30+ miles) but it wasn’t going to be an easy ride. I thought I’d make sure of this right off the bat, so as soon as we left the hotel parking lot I decided to take a spill. Soon after I pulled out onto the small shoulder, a school bus came up behind me and made me a bit nervous, so I hugged as close as I thought possible to the curb, a bit too close apparently. My sprocket and chain caught the curb and didn’t want to let go, so over I tipped. Luckily God pushed me toward the grassy hill to my right rather than the busy street to my left. It was quite smooth actually; as I tipped to my right, unable to clip out of my pedals, I used the tuck ‘n roll technique, bike and all, until I stopped on the grassy hill, still clipped into both pedals no harm done to me or my faithful Cannondale companion. Once we all realized that I was okay, on we continued. It was a hard day with lots of hills to climb up and coast down, but we knew today was only a warm up for tomorrow. Our goal was to get to Richeyville and shuttle ourselves in the van from their to our weekend cabins in Markleysburg, PA. We got there and were relieved to have a bit of a longer afternoon to relax longer than we’ve been able to yet up to this point, especially considering what we have to climb tomorrow.

Today’s Stats:
Ride Time: 3:28:09
Today’s Distance: 42.89 Miles
Total Trip Distance So Far: 489.65
Average Speed: 12.3 MPH
Max Speed: 43.7 MPH
Road Kill Tally: Keep guessing, Cliff will let you know upon our return.

Pictures: The internet connection I am working with isn't handling picture uploads very well, so I'll try adding them tomorrow night when we get to our hotel.

Here they are as promised:

Leaving our hotel in the morning (just before I biffed it on the curb).

These are no longer hills, they are mountains.

Home sweet home for the weekend.

Packin' in some carbs for The Summit tomorrow.

Day 6 UPDATE – Saturday, September 5, 2009

This morning we shuttled from our cabins back to Richeyville, where we ended yesterday. We picked up our riding here, shooting to end at our cabins in Markleysburg.

So off we went. Today is the day we climbed what locals call “The Summit”. The Summit boasts a constant 9% grade climb for 4+ miles. Which might not seem like a big deal to Lance Armstrong or the like, but lets be honest here, we’re relative novices here, not professionals. “Slow and steady, one crank after another after another. Don’t pay attention to speed, just maintain your cadence. I can see the van up ahead, we can stop and refill our water. Wait, why is Caleb running down the hill at us jumping up and down? What are those guys doing, that can’t be the top already. Dude, it’s the top, We’re almost there!” These are some of the many thoughts that ran through our heads, amongst numerous others. We made it up The Summit and were all surprised at how much energy we still had. Not to say that it wasn’t difficult or that we didn’t struggle up it, but we all made it and finished strong. Once we descended the downside of The Summit, we stopped for a lunch at which point we compared our maximum speeds. 45.8 MPH was the winner, we won’t say who this happened to be, as we don’t want to add any reason for concern for our wives who are reading this. If you have doubt, see the picture of the speedometer below. The max speed registered at 45.8 MPH which is our fastest yet. We’ve decided that from now on, we’ll all try and keep it at 30 MPH or less on the mountainous down hills. 45.8 MPH is too fast for comfort. After lunch, we continued onward for our day was not yet done, we had several smaller “hills” to conquer before we arrived back at our cabins. We cranked it out and made it back. Derek introduced everyone to stuffed burgers over the fire. We prepared the food, we ate the food, and we were satisfied. Tomorrow we will be exercising the Sabbath by not riding. Looking forward to it.

Today’s Stats:
Ride Time: 3:34:24
Today’s Distance: 37.25 Miles
Total Trip Distance So Far: 526.90 Miles
Average Speed: 10.6 MPH
Max Speed: 45.8 MPH (see pix below if you don’t believe me)
Road Kill Tally: Keep guessing, Cliff will let you know upon our return.

Pictures: The internet connection I am working with isn't handling picture uploads very well, so I'll try adding them tomorrow night when we get to our hotel.

Here they are as promised:

Welcome to The Summit.

One crank at a time.

Not quite to the top, but check out that view.

We made The Summit and now we will eat.

No more of this silliness.