Today we crossed into EASTERN TIME (welcome hommmme!) and
rode another century+ for the week (110 miles) and it went much better than
last time. I have found that when I am thinking on the bike, time passes pretty
quickly. I managed to plan my workout/school schedule today (exciting I know)
but that killed about 20 miles. Then I dozed off into this relaxation state of
cycling, it’s strange to be physically working yet somehow remaining calm and
at rest, almost as if I was in some sort of meditation. This got me through to
mile 60. After that, it was a series of emotional highs and lows, meaning ‘this
is great’ to ‘are we there yet,’ kind of things.
Some things of note that I did not take a picture of I saw a
sign that said “Free Pickles” and sure enough there was a container full of
pickles next to the road. I don’t care if it would have been gross, had I liked
pickles or had this been ‘free ice cream,’ I would have downed them. Since we
were in Amish country, I saw many horse drawn buggies and some were even moving
so slowly that I managed to pass them (on the left of course) on my bicycle.
It’s crazy to see farmland and know that people wake up at dawn to mend and
plant their crops, take care of their animals, etc just so we, the consumers,
can eat meat. I got a taste of the hard work that goes into this because my
roommate’s boyfriend is a dairy farmer but to see the work first hand is pretty
cool. All the people passing in buggies and on bicycle looked so happy and so
content with their version of simple living and even those working hard on the
land still managed to wave. America brings together people of all cultures, all
ideals, and all perspectives and seeing each one of these for a number of miles
by bicycle has really made me appreciate our country.
Jeff Sloan, the happy dentist on the trip, had an incident
where his derailer broke this morning after 20 miles and he had to ride the
rest of the day in 1 gear. I think I change gears every 30 seconds and I use
all of mine so you can imagine how difficult/frustrating this must be. When I arrived
into camp, riders were setting up his tent because they knew he’d be late and
wanted to perform a kind gesture. Yesterday, Tim, the Marine Corps pulled
Martha (let her draft behind him), one of the slower riders, the entire 80
miles and made sure she hadn’t fallen back every step of the way. We are
becoming a community and although we are all very different and may never have
been friends in the real world if that was left to choice, the choice to do
this ride was enough of a choice. I think we have all come to the conclusion
that if someone chooses to ride their bicycle across the country in 48 days for
charity, chooses to get up in the face of heat and thunderstorms, chooses to
mindlessly set up and take down tents every day, chooses to do all of this to
become more mentally and physically well rounded, then that person is someone
we want to get to know or at least we want to help out. Attitude is everything
for this trip and when I am in a bad mood, I do not try and pretend like my day
is going great because I know if I am honest in speaking what I am feeling,
someone will give me honest advice or pay a little more attention to helping me
along. I love that. And I love seeing others do it as well.
By the way, in case anyone was wondering (this is the boring
stuff but I feel like I should write it so it can trigger cool stuff that
happened that day), we are camping at a state park in Kendallville, IN and
dinner was pulled pork and salad catered by the Parks and Rec Dept. The mayor
was here along with the press and we were treated with an entire soft serve ice
cream machine.
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