Day 37: 9th State Line Crossing, 6th and Final Century, Eastern Time Zone (Again?), Father's Day Celebration

Funny...Gil thought he was already in Eastern Time Zone, as did we [since he told us he was and all. -Jean]. Look how wrong we can be! [Wow. Now we're going to start getting cliff notes even LATER at night, which...we thought had already started. -Jean] 103 miles today but they made excellent time across Ohio, some hills, excellent wind. After 70 miles they hit some "serious" hills. Gil road with other CrossRoads people most of the day. He said that a fair number of people rode the SAG vehicles today due to the length (today) and difficulty of tomorrow's ride. They've been warned that there are steep and continuous hills the last 25 miles tomorrow. Oh joy, joy, joy.

Check out his new aerodynamic handlebars in the first picture! -Jean

Gil sent his cliff notes to Jean, so she'll add them to the blog later.

Happy Father's Day, Dad! Also, they got into Marysville, OH today, if anyone's still keeping track; perhaps I'll catch up on the itinerary-table-making tomorrow. [Jean]

Gil's Cliff Notes [added late Sunday night; around 2:30 Monday morning, in fact. Written 5:08 pm and not eaten by webmail!]
The ride was long. 105 miles. We made one wrong turn which added to the official 103 miles. Yeah, there were a lot of turns and I wasn't focused like a laser after 70 miles. The first 40 miles flew by. We had a gentle tail wind and 6 of us just raced through the Ohio countryside with our orange flags fluttering. The first SAG stop was at 47 miles in a nice little town that I can't remember the name of. After that we encounter rolling hills. The temperature climbed too. Then at 70 miles (when the thrill of it was gone) there were more serious hills requiring the granny gear. By this time the temp had climbed into the low 90's but I felt good and just kept pedaling. Reached hotel just before 3 PM. 15.4 average speed for the 105 miles. Not bad! Went directly to Bob Evans near hotel (before showering) to get food in me to start repairing cells and preparing for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a real challenge. Another long ride with serious, steep hills the last 25 miles. Hey, I can do it! Now it is time to get more food.