Having some trouble with consistent internet connection. So stay tunned, I'll get caught up here as soon as I can. In the mean time, bear with me as the blog seems to be getting a bit messy / out of order as I have tried posting tonight.
Till then.
Cycling to raise awareness and funding for Lakeshore Pregnancy Center. Visit lpcenters.com for more information.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Day 5 - Here We Go!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Wheeling, WV to Richeyville, PA
~ 42.04 Miles
Tentative Route:
Wheeling, WV to Richeyville, PA
~ 42.04 Miles
Tentative Route:
Day 4 - Evening Report
Every day that goes by we seem to encounter new challenges accompanied by new stories. Today was not an easy day. We knew this when we shoved off this morning and began the day. We set out to cover ~115 miles of tough terrain (up to 9%+ grade climbs). The day was basically book ended by craziness as far as "hills" go. We weren't entirely sure we'd make the whole distance today. The first 1/2 of the day went well. One stroke at a time up the hills and then coasting for a few miles and then back up another steep climb that made each of us wonder what the heck we were thinking and how we were going to make it to the top, let alone the end of the day. We made another visit to our friends at Orrville Cycling & Fitness to get another bike tuned up and then onward we went. We met a very talkative police officer when we stopped for lunch. After lunch things went smoothly for a few hours. Then we hit that second book end and, aside from the struggle to climb the never ending hills before us, things got a bit more interesting. Once we hit the hills, we kinda split into 2 groups. One that was able to tackle the hills a bit more ferociously, and another group, my group, who figured we were in this to finish, so we'd better pace ourselves.
Eventually we ended up so far behind the other group, we could no longer see them. Not a huge deal, we'll just meet up with them the next time they break for Caleb to go to the bathroom for the millionth time today. So we followed the directions to a T, until we reached a dirt road that didn't look the least bit inviting. We rode past to scout out what was up a ways. Nothing was up a ways. We were officially in the middle of po-dunk-nowhere. Seriously, we were beginning to get a bit unsettled about not knowing where we were or how exactly we were gonna get to where we needed to be. I found some very friendly guys sitting on their front porch drinking some shine, who were absolutely no help at all in their 4:00 pm stuppor. With no choice left, we began walking down the dirt road, knowing it was supposed to take us to the next highway we needed. Dave patiently followed behind us in the van, until he saw the hill we needed to climb. We got out of his way so he could keep up his speed, but it was too steep a gravel road to make it up with a 2 wheel drive pulling a trailer of this girth. So now what? We tried the backing down thing. Not so sucessful; it was a narrow, steep gravel road with a ditch on both sides. Luckily God was paying attention and within minutes after the van and trailer were pinned, Steve shows up. Who is Steve you ask? Steve was a God-Send. Steve drove an F350 Dulley pick-up. He offers a tow, to which we accept. For some reason I brought my tow strap. He gets Dave up the hill, that I believe had 2 false peaks and then disapears into the sunset off into a mountainous field to who knows where.
We eventually did get to that highway we needed and we rode until it got dark and Mark told us we had to pack it in for the day. So we loaded up the trailer and headed for the hotel, to which the other guys had arrived to minutes before. They aren't entirely sure how they made it there, but they did and had some navigational adventures of their own, including a down hill that lasted a few miles weaving through the mountains. For their familie's sake I won't mention that they tackled said roads well after the light had faded behind the hills.
Anyways. We met back up at the hotel, swapped lots 'o stories about the past few hours, grabbed some food and went to bed.
Here are the stats for the day from the guys that went the whole distance:
Ride Time: 8:09:33
Today’s Distance: 126.2 Miles
MilesTotal Trip Distance So Far: 446.65 Miles
MilesAverage Speed: 15.5 MPH
Max Speed: 36.9 MPH
Road Kill Tally: Keep guessing, Cliff will let you know upon our return.
The WiFi connection here is a bit scetchy, so I'll post some pix next time I get a chance.
Here they are:
Towin' us up Graves Rd. hill.
Us with Tow Truck (F350 Dulley) Steve. Not sure why my eyes are closed.
Eventually we ended up so far behind the other group, we could no longer see them. Not a huge deal, we'll just meet up with them the next time they break for Caleb to go to the bathroom for the millionth time today. So we followed the directions to a T, until we reached a dirt road that didn't look the least bit inviting. We rode past to scout out what was up a ways. Nothing was up a ways. We were officially in the middle of po-dunk-nowhere. Seriously, we were beginning to get a bit unsettled about not knowing where we were or how exactly we were gonna get to where we needed to be. I found some very friendly guys sitting on their front porch drinking some shine, who were absolutely no help at all in their 4:00 pm stuppor. With no choice left, we began walking down the dirt road, knowing it was supposed to take us to the next highway we needed. Dave patiently followed behind us in the van, until he saw the hill we needed to climb. We got out of his way so he could keep up his speed, but it was too steep a gravel road to make it up with a 2 wheel drive pulling a trailer of this girth. So now what? We tried the backing down thing. Not so sucessful; it was a narrow, steep gravel road with a ditch on both sides. Luckily God was paying attention and within minutes after the van and trailer were pinned, Steve shows up. Who is Steve you ask? Steve was a God-Send. Steve drove an F350 Dulley pick-up. He offers a tow, to which we accept. For some reason I brought my tow strap. He gets Dave up the hill, that I believe had 2 false peaks and then disapears into the sunset off into a mountainous field to who knows where.
We eventually did get to that highway we needed and we rode until it got dark and Mark told us we had to pack it in for the day. So we loaded up the trailer and headed for the hotel, to which the other guys had arrived to minutes before. They aren't entirely sure how they made it there, but they did and had some navigational adventures of their own, including a down hill that lasted a few miles weaving through the mountains. For their familie's sake I won't mention that they tackled said roads well after the light had faded behind the hills.
Anyways. We met back up at the hotel, swapped lots 'o stories about the past few hours, grabbed some food and went to bed.
Here are the stats for the day from the guys that went the whole distance:
Ride Time: 8:09:33
Today’s Distance: 126.2 Miles
MilesTotal Trip Distance So Far: 446.65 Miles
MilesAverage Speed: 15.5 MPH
Max Speed: 36.9 MPH
Road Kill Tally: Keep guessing, Cliff will let you know upon our return.
The WiFi connection here is a bit scetchy, so I'll post some pix next time I get a chance.
Here they are:
Towin' us up Graves Rd. hill.
Us with Tow Truck (F350 Dulley) Steve. Not sure why my eyes are closed.
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:
Ashland, OH to Wheeling, WV
114.68 Miles
Our expected route today:
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Day 3 - Here We Go!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Bowling Green, OH to Ashland, OH
~ 96.66 Miles
Our expected route for the day:
Bowling Green, OH to Ashland, OH
~ 96.66 Miles
Our expected route for the day:
Day 2 - Evening Report
Another great day.
To start off, on behalf of all of us riders, I want to thank Dave Dreyer for doing an amazing job of taking care of us along the way. Dave is driving the van and trailer for us. It can't be the most exciting responsibility in the world to drive up ahead of us 15-30 miles and wait for us to ride past, only to do it all over again and again and again until we reach our destination each day. So, thanks Dave, you're doing a great job keeping us stocked up on water, food, stretch breaks, some great pictures and what ever else we need along the way.
This morning we rolled out around 8:00 AM. Once we got ourselves out of Jackson, MI, we were good to go. Getting out of Jackson, however, was a bit of a chore. Our best, most convenient way out would have been via a divided highway. Since we aren't technically supposed to ride on divided highways (and it really isn't a great idea as far as safety goes), we made our way through some mysterious backwoods roads that occasionally gave us no choice but to get chased by dogs that thought they were much larger and more intimidating than they actually were and ride on gravel, which isn't very cool, but we took it slow and made it back around to our route.
The terrain today was nice. Most of the time (excluding the gravel) we were on some nice roads with fairly wide shoulders and hills with very forgiving grades (probably nothing more than a 1%). There was a head wind out of the East most of the day, but we plugged through it when we needed to.
I won't divulge the details, but ask Mark about a very specific riding technique he should be pretty keen on by the time our little adventure is through. If his memory needs any jogging, it has to do with a vital step involved in the whole stopping process when you have clip in pedals. Sorry Mark, but how could I possibly resist. Maybe I'll go back and edit this out of today's post for a small bribe, but don't count on it. Like I said earlier today, pride isn't a terrible thing to lose. I think this still stands, despite how terrible it may be for me to blog about it. Just remember that I've fallen over 1x so far on this trip too.
We arrived at our hotel around 4:30 PM, checked in and did some chilaxin' until dinner. Tonight for dinner we partook in a place I like to frequent quite regularly, Chipotle. It was gooooood, though we felt like we needed more calories, so most of the group went to Bob Evans for a bit more to eat.
Here are some of the stats for today:
Ride Time: 6:34:05
Distance Today: 106.85 Miles
Total Trip Distance So Far: 226.60
Average Speed: 16.2 MPH
Max Speed: 31.2 MPH
Road Kill Tally: Submit your guesses to Cliff. He'll reveal the final count after the trip.
Here are some pix from today:
Look, now I have a unique patch (of sorts) on BOTH arms.
Bob & Caleb getting ready to get back to it.
Look, they are actually riding.
We promise, we're riding our bikes on this trip, it just happens to be easier to take our pictures when we're not bulting past at the speed of light.
Goodbye Michigan...
...hello Ohio.
John decided it might be good to put sunscreen on.
Lunch time with Bob & Caleb's family.
Mark is now happy.
Mmmmmmmm.
Still riding.
You guessed it, more riding.
To start off, on behalf of all of us riders, I want to thank Dave Dreyer for doing an amazing job of taking care of us along the way. Dave is driving the van and trailer for us. It can't be the most exciting responsibility in the world to drive up ahead of us 15-30 miles and wait for us to ride past, only to do it all over again and again and again until we reach our destination each day. So, thanks Dave, you're doing a great job keeping us stocked up on water, food, stretch breaks, some great pictures and what ever else we need along the way.
This morning we rolled out around 8:00 AM. Once we got ourselves out of Jackson, MI, we were good to go. Getting out of Jackson, however, was a bit of a chore. Our best, most convenient way out would have been via a divided highway. Since we aren't technically supposed to ride on divided highways (and it really isn't a great idea as far as safety goes), we made our way through some mysterious backwoods roads that occasionally gave us no choice but to get chased by dogs that thought they were much larger and more intimidating than they actually were and ride on gravel, which isn't very cool, but we took it slow and made it back around to our route.
The terrain today was nice. Most of the time (excluding the gravel) we were on some nice roads with fairly wide shoulders and hills with very forgiving grades (probably nothing more than a 1%). There was a head wind out of the East most of the day, but we plugged through it when we needed to.
I won't divulge the details, but ask Mark about a very specific riding technique he should be pretty keen on by the time our little adventure is through. If his memory needs any jogging, it has to do with a vital step involved in the whole stopping process when you have clip in pedals. Sorry Mark, but how could I possibly resist. Maybe I'll go back and edit this out of today's post for a small bribe, but don't count on it. Like I said earlier today, pride isn't a terrible thing to lose. I think this still stands, despite how terrible it may be for me to blog about it. Just remember that I've fallen over 1x so far on this trip too.
We arrived at our hotel around 4:30 PM, checked in and did some chilaxin' until dinner. Tonight for dinner we partook in a place I like to frequent quite regularly, Chipotle. It was gooooood, though we felt like we needed more calories, so most of the group went to Bob Evans for a bit more to eat.
Here are some of the stats for today:
Ride Time: 6:34:05
Distance Today: 106.85 Miles
Total Trip Distance So Far: 226.60
Average Speed: 16.2 MPH
Max Speed: 31.2 MPH
Road Kill Tally: Submit your guesses to Cliff. He'll reveal the final count after the trip.
Here are some pix from today:
Look, now I have a unique patch (of sorts) on BOTH arms.
Bob & Caleb getting ready to get back to it.
Look, they are actually riding.
We promise, we're riding our bikes on this trip, it just happens to be easier to take our pictures when we're not bulting past at the speed of light.
Goodbye Michigan...
...hello Ohio.
John decided it might be good to put sunscreen on.
Lunch time with Bob & Caleb's family.
Mark is now happy.
Mmmmmmmm.
Still riding.
You guessed it, more riding.
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