Day 8 - Evening Report

As I stated in a previous post, with each new day comes new experiences, adventures, and challenges.

As we set off this morning, it was raining, it had been raining for a good portion of the night so everything was nice and saturated, and the forecast called for rain. This was not exactly ideal from the perspective of cyclists in the middle of a long trip such as this one. If I were at home and I was getting ready for my Sunday morning ride with Bob and it were raining, we would text back and forth, letting each other know that we wouldn't be riding and we’d just see one another at church in a few hours. Unfortunately, on a trip of this nature, the option of saying “guess I won’t be riding this morning” and rolling back into bed simply doesn’t exist. We do after all have a quota of miles we need to meet each day so we make it to Baltimore on Wednesday.

So, resist as we might, we geared up best we could for riding in the rain and proceeded as normal. The thing about gearing up for riding in the rain is that you get wet no matter what you do. Option 1: Gear up with rain gear and sweat to the point that you are just as soggy wet as the guy not wearing said gear. Option 2: Don’t gear up with any rain gear and get just as wet as the guy wearing said gear who is sweating like it were his job. So some of us geared up, some didn’t. Personal preference + trial and error I suppose are what it comes down to.

All that to say that we began riding and were all soaked very shortly following our departure. It’s amazing how much road grime (john would call this goopis) you pick up when it’s raining. This stuff gets everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE. Bike and body being completely saturated only adds to the experience, or something like that. Basically it makes riding pretty miserable, at least this is my personal opinion. I’m sure you could find cyclists who don’t mind or even enjoy getting’ all nasty soggy wet, but not me. So needless to say our bikes are all pretty nasty right now. We figure we'll leave 'em that way so that all ya'll believe we actually did this upon our return.

To give you an idea, here’s how cycling in the rain plays out: you coast down a hill riding your brakes the whole way as to not lose control or get going so fast that your wet brakes don’t assist you anymore. On the down hill you’re freezing cold and can’t wait for the next up hill climb so you can get back to producing some core body heat, then you’re too hot and want the next down hill and so on and so forth. It’s confusing and really makes you wonder if you know what you want at all anymore. I actually heard Cliff say “Man I’m cold, I hope we get to climb a hill soon so I can warm up.” Don’t worry, Cliff was able to warm back up, we were able to find another mountain or twelve to climb throughout the rest of the day.

By about 2:00/2:30 the sun came out, things dried up, and we shed our layers. We once again found that our directions don’t always jive with the reality of how the roads are laid out. That’s okay though, we made friends with many of the locals who unfortunately don’t tend to invoke our trust when it comes to their sense of directions, communication or knowledge of how to get from their town to the next one over.

All this in a good day’s ride. Thanks for your prayers today and throughout the trip so far. God has definitely stretched each of us in various ways as well as blessed us repeatedly. Remember that what we are accomplishing on this trip is beyond any of us without the strength, endurance, and perseverance that God gives us each new day. May we each shine Him in a manner of which He is worthy.

Today’s Stats:
Ride Time: 4:57:13
Today’s Distance: 62.50 Miles
Total Trip Distance So Far: 589.40
Average Speed: 12.3 MPH
Max Speed: 35.10 MPH
Flat Tires Today: 2
Flat Tires So Far: 3
Total # of Dog Chases Worth Mentioning: 0 so far
Road Kill Tally: Keep guessing, Cliff will let you know upon our return.


Here are some pix from today:

Maybe you can't see it, but it's raining, trust us.

We're in Maryland, we must be getting closer.

Coming out of a down hill freeze session, headin' into a up hill thaw.

These kids had themselves a bucket of 9 water bugs they was tryin' to sell for 25 cents each. We were their 1st potential customers all day. We didn't buy any, though later we wished we had just to boost their rainy day a bit.

Detouring through a town.