B to B -- Back to Blogging

I had a stretch of bad luck in the blogging department for the last few days. Tuesday there was no Internet access and I thought it felt like a good day to take a break from the computer anyway. We went 78 miles and the hills were a'rollin. Up and down, up and down. It was fun zooming down and seeing how far you could get up the next incline before you had to pedal.

"The Troop" (including Sandy, Mike, me, Chris, John) stopped at a coffee shop and I had a great big piece of lime bundt cake - it tasted wonderful even though I had felt queasy on and off for the morning. Lunch was served by a local church at a farm on the route, what a beautiful setting - they even had Twinkies which I packed for the road. I promised my daughter Kenzie I would bring her home 1 Twinkie since she is deprived and has never had one. But the Twinkie did not have a long life in my bike bag mixing in bump after bump with sunscreen, lip balm, butt cream, camera, etc. Sandy and I had a funeral for the twinkie when we arrived in camp - don't gross out but we ate the remains=)

We ended up at a beautiful State Park on Seneca Lake, one of the finger lakes. The showers happened to be far enough away that I climbed back on my bike and rode there with towel flying and shampoo hanging on for life. With my versatile bike, I raced across the grass area to the showers, bypassing the longer route on the pave road - hey, I have to keep making up advantages my very heavy bike brings over these light road bikes, especially when we are grinding up hills.

My knees ached and groaned all night and I awoke Wednesday morning dreading the hilly day ahead. Sure enough, we dragged ourselves onto the road the next day and kept up a whopping 14-15mph - hurting puppies describes us. God had pity on me 10 miles into the ride and shot me a burst of energy just as the hills hit. These hills were not the up and down version, but the up, up, up version. My knees actually did better and did not bother me once they were warmed up. These hills I love - that was not a typo, I really do enjoy this type of hill where you find a rhythm for your pedaling and breathing and grind up the hill.

At the bottom of a fun descent, Marijo and James, along with others, were working really hard finishing up a very large waffle cone. John and I decided this cross-training maneuver looked good and we stopped too looking to work our taste buds on a grape slushy (John is such a kid) and apricot ice cream. I was surprised when I noticed John putting back on his reflective vest (the one thing we were told was mandatory and may be life-saving) after being bugged by Cheryl from Canada. I too have been forced into this "pestering John to wear his vest" role - seems he has a hard time covering up his "cool" jerseys with a tacky vest with his name written in black marker. In his defense, he must have spent a lot of Internet time searching for cool jerseys to buy - they are unique. Mary (John's wife), I gladly hand the pestering role back to you.

We ended up at a school and my parents, sister, and kids came to pick me up - they got a hotel in Binghampton. After 4 crazy hours of hearing stories from my kids, hearing the news on the TV, hearing music and sports channels in the restaurant we ate dinner, I was on sensory overload and was relieved to return to the relative quiet of camp. I can't write much about how hard it was to visit with my kids and have to leave them again - I might tear up in the library where I am sitting. i put Jimmy to bed and he kept asking me to sleep in the bed next to him and even my 12 year old cried. I better go - we still have 35 miles to ride today. Can you tell I need to do something else besides think of my kids?