Today was a pretty good day for riding. A little hot, but not terribly humid, and the route kept me near the beach most of the day. When I stopped for breakfast this morning, I realized that I had left my water bottles at the sink in the campground...should've made that cup of tea after all. Yesterday, I noticed that one of my shifter cables was starting to fray and I'm happy to report that it held through the day. I'll fix that tomorrow morning before I hit the road...simply too exhausted to bother right now. During the day, the flies ("greenheads" as the locals call them) were really vicious, but luckily there are none in my campsite.
I began the day by stopping at the parking meter and depositing 20 cents on behalf of Katie. We thought it was just too funny last night and she left me with 2 dimes for that specific purpose. See the photo album of Mass and you'll know what I'm talking about. Today, I also passed a mailbox made out of an old beer keg, but it was not a good place for me to stop and take a picture. Oh well.
There's not a whole lot more to share about today. It was mostly uneventful, just filled with wonderful scenery and quite flat. What I will say is that I bonked again today. If you're British, don't start congratulating me yet... Bonking in cyclist terms means running yourself too hard and running out of energy. It's the point in the day when you just can't go any further with any efficiency and no amount of Red Bull will fix it. You're just done...stick a fork in me, I'm done. I really slogged through the last 10 miles or so. Even had to stop and ask someone in their driveway to fill up my water bottles because I went through some pretty desolate areas.
When I was younger, I went through braces. When the Orthodontist would say "we're just going to do a little adjustment today" and tighten things, it would make my entire head ache to the point where I really didn't feel like eating for about 2 days. My body feels that now. After being in the saddle for 46.1 miles today, I feel like somebody put a wedge into my hips and tried to split the right side off. The campground I'm in has a pool and I was very happy to go sit on the steps and soak today!
Tomorrow is a relatively short day. I'm heading up to Somersworth for another house visit, and I'm really looking forward to the time off. I'm going to try to finish another book (more weight to mail home) and I'm going to really think about the trip. At this point, I'm really enjoying the travel and the tourism, but I'm not so sure that I really want to do the whole trip by bicycle. One of my campsite neighbors from Falmouth, MA made a statement that hasn't left me yet... "The way to travel is by van or truck - take the bike with you and just do day trips, but don't be forced to ride up all those hills." Staying out of the rain (though I've been lucky so far, I still know I'll have some wet times ahead) is also a really enticing characteristic too. So I'm not quitting, but I may be rethinking things in the next few weeks.
For the statistics today: 46.1 miles, 27.6 max, 11.9 average and 3:53 of riding time. If you're keeping track, I'm in New Hampshire now - state #5 on the trip.
thanks for dropping the 20 cents in the meter- given we were in Salem you can never be too supersitious- pay the meter man on the way out of town. So you bonked next day out... it couldn't have anything with having another round...and stay clear of women with hand controls. Be safe, stay dry, have patience with your body it will get use to the riding. most of all have a blast. Katie
Posted by: Katie | Saturday, July 23, 2005 at 09:39 AM