Quite a day! Off at 7:05 am. Slightly cool at start but quickly warmed up - too much. Made first SAG at mile 38 before 10 am. Averaging over 15 mph. Pretty rolling country side - barns, silos, fields, trees, horses, etc. Nice. After SAG hills became larger and more numerous. Still very scenic. At mile 67 we were on a small country road that paralleled a sizable stream. Tom spied a rope dangling from a big tree on the opposite bank and decided to try it out. Terry also decided to take a swim and Tony and I decided just to take pictures and video tape. Quite a scene. By this time it was more than a little warm and they reported the water was cold. Made small store at mile 70 where we got some pizza. Then made last SAG stop at mile 73. After SAG the dreaded hill that we'd been warned about started. Large steep hills. I could barely crank my way to the tops of some of them. Exhausting work and with temp now in 90s. There were a number of these big hills between us and the hotel in Wooster at mile 98. Tony and I stuck together and took breaks at the top of the hills. We ended up getting to hotel ahead of most riders. On the last hill in Wooster a mile short of hotel I heard this car honk and someone yelled "Gil!" It was Adeel and his family. I couldn't believe it! It just astounded me. What a great thing for them to do. We visited briefly at the hotel and took pictures before they left for Chicago. Hey, I still can't believe it happened. When they honked and started waving I was a little disoriented from the ride and just couldn't put it all together.Today's ride was one of the hardest of the tour in that it was long and very hilly and followed a couple of difficult days. I'm very pleased my body allowed me to complete it and feel good my body functioned so well. The body is truly an amazing machine.
Wow, day 38 already??
Dad reports that the countryside through Ohio is very pretty, though Ohio is most definitely NOT flat. But rural and Americana (in the good ways). He especially enjoys the scenery and old buildings, which "a lot of the time are fairly neat" - such as courthouses, etc.He enjoyed the stream/rope diversion today, but feels it's just as well he didn't partake. (Given everyone's "butt issues" and the interesting organisms in streams, I agreed, though it did sound kind of fun and certainly a good way to cool off.) He said that Tom's new nickname is "Tom Sawyer." On a related note, "Roadkill Gil" thankfully seems to be dying out. Not that we weren't proud or anything.
Some of today's hills were VERY steep - he was very pleased to make the entire ride. Some riders took the SAG van part of the way today; there were medium hills mid-way through the ride, then the last 25 miles were made up of very large, very steep hills. He said he could barely leverage his bike up one of the hills, and thought a few times that if there was another hill immediately after the one he was on he may not have enough time to recover. Fortunately he didn't have to walk his bike up any of them. (Not that we'd have cared, sounds quite reasonable to us. I'd have walked the whole darn way. But he was proud of being able to push through.) At a low point near the end of the ride, he was down to 2.9 mph. They had 3500' feet of elevation gain today. (Just typing that makes me tired.) Said that virtually everyone is exhausted, and that it was a hard but satisfying day.
Running into Adeel was "just incredible." Adeel called the house last week to confirm which hotel Dad would be at in Wooster, OH today - he and his family were driving to Chicago, and wanted to stop for a few minutes to surprise Dad on the way. I know they were planning to look for him at the hotel, so it was a real coincidence that they ran across him on the road! Dad said that he was on a very large hill and it was "really very hot" out (it got to 96 today). So he was exhausted at the end of the ride, just a mile short of the hotel, and his mind was wrapped up in his own little world. (I wonder what they think about riding all day?) Then he hears "Gil! Gil!" and sees a car with Wajeha (? - Adeel's wife, though I'm sure I've not done justice to her name), some kids, and someone filming him. "I was wrapped up in my own little world and not too sharp" - he said that it "frankly took a few minutes to figure out what was going on." But he was just thrilled to have surprise visitors (Adeel and his family were great neighbors) once he figured out what was going on (no Gil, not a hallucination...). Described it as just delightful, and an incredible thing for them to do. So they had a nice, albeit brief, visit before Adeel and family continued on their way to Chicago.
Dad and Tony came in ahead of most of the other riders today - he said he "doesn't know what happened." (Apparently quite a fluke, and while a pleasant surprise for them there's no bragging here.) About 10 miles out of Wooster they asked one of the support staff how many people were still behind them; the "tour lady" said that actually they were doing very well, and ahead of most of the other riders. They finished ahead of 1/2 - 2/3 of the other riders - again he said he "doesn't know what happened!" But it was a most gratifying surprise. I'm sure there were a lot of breaks today at the top (or middle) of hills, particularly since they did 80 and 103 miles over the weekend and have three more long days ahead of them - 92 miles (almost another century, with the various readings riders' computers are giving them of the exact routes; today essentially was another century, though yesterday's was billed as the last official one) and 89 miles over the next two days before another rest day. Smart of people not to push themselves too hard, since they're going to need their energy for a few more days. (Even if I consider this entire tour "pushing oneself too hard"!)Tomorrow's ride to Niles, OH "may be a little easier" than today - 92 miles vs 98, a little less elevation gain, and the hills should be less steep. Hope the wind continues to either not factor in at all or be helpful!
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