93.25 mi max 37.5 7:48.20 avg 11.9
Phew. I am pretty stinky.
I'm holed up in my bivy sack (actually, Matt's bivy sack) in some cornfield. It's not far from a nuclear power plant. Every now and again a voice calls out over a loudspeaker, the kind you might expect the police to use when they are tracking down suspects. I'd have made it farther, but I spent an hour and a half trying to change a flat. I destroyed 2 at the valve - one of them, I sheared off the valve at the point it meets the rim, and the other one I punctured at the base of the stem. So, I have to buy tubes tomorrow. I should also mention that I lost a tube on Sunday, climbing up a hill. And speaking of kindnesses, a woman in an SUV stopped to ask if I was alright. I asked her if she had a floor pump, and she said she did. She offered to go get it - her house was about 10 minutes from where we were. Unfortunately, her pump only had a Schraeder fitting (the old fashioned kind - most tires today are made with a Presta valve) and it only went to 100 psi; my tires take 115 pounds per square inch.
And, if that weren't enough, this morning when I was riding on the Schuylkill Traill with Dom & Kim, I broke spoke #4. Fortunately, it was on the non-drive train side, so Dom was able to fix it for me. Thank goodness I bought a spoke tool!
I've been stopping a lot less for pictures. I want to go home! This evening, I did stop at the Cycle Funattic in Phillipsburg, to have my wheel trued from this morning, and also to get a bike headlight. I'm anticipating that I'll be riding in the dark at some point. Especially since I don't have a set itinerary, and there's no camp set up for me, there's really no reason for me to stop before dark (which is what I did tonight).
I met a woman today, Joan, because I needed some water. She was also another example of someone who was very kind. I asked her if I was headed on the right track, partially to find out how challenging the hills would be up ahead. By now, I know that non-cyclists have a VERY different, car-based perspective on hills. By their calculations, hills aren't even really issues. Riders, on the other hand, often gauge the difficulty of a hill from behind the wheel - sometimes, I don't even realize I'm doing it, it just happens. Virtually every person I've shown my map to has scrunched his or her eyebrows, and said, "Well, this map is ALL messed up." Even cyclists on the Big Ride. It's not a conventional map, for sure...but once you get used to reading it, it DOES make sense.
Joan was also very concerned for my safety...suggesting even that I travel with a gun. I'm not sure how that would make me safer. She also suggested that I take a "short cut". Unfortunately, my map isn't detailed enough for shortcuts. As she explained the different turns, my eyes glazed over and I said, "Thank you very much," when she was finished...what she didn't realize is that I can't handle more than three directions at a time...and sometimes even THAT proves to be more of a challenge than I can take! (Besides, my route took me close to a river. That generally will be a flatter ride than "cross country").
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