Day 39 & 40--Biking by Braile, and Rest

Niles, Ohio to Erie, Pa.

I explained in an earlier blog posting about my problems while serious rain. Today was my biggest test todate.

It rained most of the night before and most of the day. The day started wet and dark, with pouring down rain. Most of us started out together. In addition, Willie had some friends that joined us for the day. Other riders had people join us periodically throughout the ride for a day of riding. I'm sure that these guys were second guessing themselves but to their credit they all made the full day's ride. I can't say the same about myself.

We started out down a major road, and were virtually soaked within the first miles. At our first left turn, Hank was in the wrong gear, stop to adjust his gearing, and told everyone to go around. It was a slight up hill, and we all began grinding it out.

I wasn't real fond of the weather, and it wasn't long before I was wondering if the weather would let me continue. The next turn was a left, and Sue and I were together. For some reason, I was pressing. I guess I intuitively knew that if this situation continued for me that I would be off the road at the 1st SAG.

This road was very rural, no sidewalks, few homes, a road with a slight crown in the center. I rode center line because of the lack of traffic, and it took out some of the standing water that ponded near the side of the road. At one point, I looked back and didn't see Sue, but I knew there were others behind us that she could pick up with. Later she said that she didn't know where I was going at that particular speed, but that she knew she couldn't keep up.

I started to come up on some earlier riders and kept going. I then came up on 3-4 of the faster riders, and passed them. Soon thereafter, I was stopped, running my thumb over my computer to see the mileage and trying to decide when I needed to turn. The group of 3-4 riders then passed me and asked if I was alright, and I realized that I needed to ride with them to improve my chances of avoiding getting lost. Some stories of others that came up on to the SAG indicated that they, in fact, had missed one or more turns.

At these speeds we were moving (?) we even caught up at the first SAG (around 34 miles) with the guys who left some half hour to an hour ahead of us. At that point, I threw in the towel, and took a ride in the rest of the way. This is the first time in almost 15 years of riding, including 14 of the 500 miles for Anchor House that I've ever come off the road for weather. Everything I say about this almost seems like whining, but since I had never done this before, I almost feel that I copped out. But, since I had not ridden every F --- inch up to that point because of other factors beyond my control, it didn't make much sense to push unsafely.

I didn't post any of the usual miles, average, etc.,on this blog posting as I forgot to turn off the garmin when I got off the road, and the garmin kept running in the truck taking my average up into unrealistic 40 mph range and all the other numbers were out of wack as well.

Trying to manage my riding in this weather was like trying to ride by Braile, which didn't seem very prudent. I kept hearing in my head one thing that Hank said one time, that we should use some of the wisdom that 63 years was supposed to have given us. I was not the only one who came off the road at that SAG, and some others came off the road at other points throughout the date. As we rode along in support of the other riders, I was a bit conflicted. At one point I would feel sorry for them and respected their tenacity. At the same time, I was relieved from the fear factor I was dealing with given that fact that I couldn't see through the rain drenched glasses, and I couldn't take them off and still see as others could. Plus, I knew that I would be doing another 500 mile ride within a couple of weeks, and didn't want anything to compromise that.

When we got into Erie, Pa, I went down to a laudramat about 5 blocks away (that old 2-3 day laudry requirement). On the way down to the laudramat, I saw Champ coming in and just pointed to the hotel a couple blocks up the road. And, it was still pouring rain, with driving winds. Again, seeing Champ rose up many conflicting emotions. It was still raining so hard that when I returned to the hotel, I had to change clothes to go to dinner, because I was soaked.

The next day was an off day. The first night in we ended up at an Italian place that was OK but not a step up and no alcohol. Some folks found a very nice place that we went to the next night of the rest day. The off day was again overcast and rainy. Some of us found a bus stop that took us to a mall, and a movie theater. The movie was a 50 cents, and the popcorn and drink was $2.50! Don't ask, I guess it was to just barely cover fixed costs? Well, it gave us something to do.

See ya............................