Thursday, September 3, 2009

Day 4 - Here We Go!

Thursday, September 3, 2009
Ashland, OH to Wheeling, WV
114.68 Miles

Our expected route today:
View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com

Day 3 - Evening Report

The quote of the morning went something like "This should be one of our easier days".

Um yeah, so that’s not exactly how the day played out in its entirety.
Today’s Lesson: When cycling in a tight draft line to cut a heavy head wind, you always run the risk of rubbin’ tire with the guy in front of you and causing a collision. It can happen to anyone in a split second, trust us we know.

We were able to prove this true somewhere around mid-day today. We very successfully and impressively built a 3 man pile-up, relatively free from bodily harm of any of the individuals involved in the extravaganza. Every one of us was able to continue riding and eventually finish out the day. After we arrived, we did a little meet and greet with Ducia Hamm, Executive Director and Wayne Fannon, Board President of Ashland Care Center. Thank you both for coming out and meeting us at our finish line this afternoon. We appreciate you showing your support for what we are doing for Lakeshore Pregnancy Center of Holland, MI and Pregnancy Care Centers across the country just like ours and yours.

Thanks also to the local newspaper photographer who came out, we'd love to have a link to the article when it is published.

Once we rehydrated a bit and stretched it out, we headed to a bike shop that Driver Dave was able to locate. This shop was a professional grade place called Orrville Cycling & Fitness in Orrville, OH. Many thanks to Jon the Mechanic and Roger, Owner of Orrville Cycling & Fitness for sticking around hours after closing time to work our bikes all back into pristine operating condition again. Orrville Cycling & Fitness is by all of our standards, one of the most impressive bike shops we have ever seen. Not only because of how they hooked us up and treated us in a time of dire need, but the entire shop was incredible. If you need a bike shop and your near Orville, OH, Orrville Cycling & Fitness is the place to go, I trust they’ll treat you right just like they did us.

After the bikes were back in tip top shape, we needed to get ourselves back into presentable shape before heading to our host family for the evening. We grabbed a 10:30 dinner and headed on for showers. We were a bit tired of our lycra shorts after having wore them for 12 ½ hours.
I’m not sure how Cliff managed to convince him to help out a rag tag group like us, but John Allison hooked us up huge. He set it all up for us to take showers and clean up at the locker room at his church, Grace Bretheren. He set us up with the Ashland Care Center, who in turn set it up for the local paper to meet us at the finish line today. He set us up with Jim and Linda Streets to stay for the night. Thanks a ton John.

Jim and Linda, what a blessing you have been to us too, and as we understand it, you are to so many others as well. Thank you for your gracious hospitality. Wish we would have been able to spend more time with you than we did. We've been learning that plans have to be flexible on trips of this nature.

Today’s Stats:
Ride Time: 6:05:55
Today’s Distance: 93.84 Miles
Total Trip Distance So Far: 320.45 Miles
Average Speed: 15.3 MPH
Max Speed: 29.9 MPH
Road Kill Tally: Keep guessing, Cliff will let you know upon our return.

That’s it for now. It’s late, and though I am told we get to sleep in tomorrow, I was also told in the same breath that we need to be up by 7:00 AM. That may seem like sleeping in to some, but not to me, so good night.

Some pix:

The whole crew with our generous hosts Jim and Linda.
















Our Friends at Orrville Cycling & Fitness. Thanks Jon & Roger.