Day 38--Wooster to Niles

Wooster to Niles, Ohio
Miles: 91 expanded to 95.6
Time: 6:51
Aver: 13.9 mph
Max: 29.7
Est Calories: 6,727
Ascent: 4,177

One day after Bob's accident, and I just tried to maintain my routine, like getting up at 5AM for my wake-up shower, often less for hygiene then stretching and waking up. The one treat was that I could spend a bit more time in the hot shower waking up, without taking bathroom time away from Bob. Secondly, I did need to reintroduce myself to some folk with the intent of riding with them for the day. Even though one or the other of us might take off a ride off once in a while, Bob and I usually started and ended the day together. I latched onto Sue, Hank, and Champ for most the remainder of the ride. They often went down hills better than I, especially Champ. That met that I would sometimes give myself a bit of ahead start by climbing a bit quicker, or running them down on the other side of a climb. I just don't have the guts to "let it go" on the down hills, especially after blowing out the tube, tire, and flattening the rear wheel rim in Arizona coming out of Jerome.

While riding with various groups throughout the last week, it was interesting to note the various "group cultures". Each group had little nuances that had developed over the course of the last 6 weeks. Nothing unique, just different from others. One group would slap their hip and then point to the direction they were going when making a turn, rather than perhaps just point or call out the turn. Others might yell, Going, when starting up from a ride light or the like, where others may not. One group had a reconized point person, who by personal preference wanted to be "out front" virtually all the time (Harry!), where other groups would rotate through a paceline, or still others who ride together but not in any type of paceline.. These were some of the minor adjustments I needed to adapt to as I would occassionally ride in and out of the other groups throughout the last week.

This day's ride had some horrendously rough roads. I promised Hank that I would not quote his expletive deleted's. We also had may more turns than in the past. There were days in the west that we had barely on side of a 8.5 x 11.0 sheet of paper for directions. This day we had 3 sides and a bit more on the fourth side, of directions. Other than that, we moved nicely thoughout the day. The extra few miles were due to riding around another construction situation. These extra miles, plus the century the other day, made for some 95 miles a day for the 4 days through Ohio. I know that anyone that has only driven through Ohio via the Ohio Turnpike would say, so what. The fact is that once you get south of the turnpike, you start to pick up the hillier terrain. It was a tough 4 days (almost 4 straight centuries), (including tomorrow), especially with the unfortunate incident of Bob's accident surfacing in our thoughts regularly. See ya..........