Friday, June 11, 2010

Day 4

Stats
Net Elevation gain: approximately 600 ft.
Average Speed: 7.7 mph
Top Speed: 37 mph
Time spent biking: just over 5 ½ hours
Total time for the day's travels: about 13 hours
Miles biked today: 43.08
Total for trip: 182.8 miles

Today was our first full day without rain. We had temperatures in the mid 70's and blue sky. It was a beautiful day for biking. We took our time getting up in the morning and Brett cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheese and broccoli, while Jenny finished up some things on line and packed up a little. We pushed onto Rt. 20 again just before 9 A.M..

Brett cooks up a yummy breakfast.

The road continued to be up and down. We dealt with the climbs by looking for snakes on the side of the road and by counting the reflective markers in the middle and making a guess as to how many were left until we reached the top of the the climb. Brett imagined that the shale cliffs along the road must be prime snake territory and he really wanted to see one slithering along. No luck today, but we will keep looking.

No snakes, but if you look closely you can see a little animal in rocks,
a groundhog maybe?

There were lots of people out in the fields

and so many beautiful views!

We got a fun comment from a lady on the other side of Rt. 20, when she noticed us pedaling by. “Now that's the way to do it!” she yelled, very enthusiastically to us.

We were looking for a place to buy some food to cook or a restaurant to eat at when we found KC's Corner restaurant/motel at the bottom of a hill. We stopped and had our second breakfast. Brett got pancakes and bacon and Jenny had the eggs/toast/potatoes/sausage/ham. We shared everything and managed to eat it all up except for a little bit of pancake! KC's had Internet, so we got the computer out and were able to get a little blogging in before and after our meal. It is so nice to read all the comments on the blog from folks who are excited about reading it. We are touched by many of the comments, and they all inspire us to keep going and to keep blogging.

As it turns out, KC's is at the intersection of Rt. 20 and County Road 31, where we had planned to turn south to Cooperstown. Perfect! We packed the computer away and biked onto 31, which proved to be a beautiful road! There was not much traffic and the road follows the valley along Lake Otsego so it was also fairly flat, at least in comparison to Rt. 20.

We would like to report that today was our first day without any mechanical problems, but, unfortunately, that was not the case. We were cruising along Co. Rd. 31 when we heard a loud BANG! The rear tire was flat almost immediately, and we stopped. It turns out the rear tire now has a small rip in its sidewall at the rim, much as the front tire did on Day 1, only smaller. We figured that if the one dollar bill was working for us, why not two? We patched the hole in the tube, and placed another dollar bill by the rip in the sidewall, and hoped for the best.

Waiting for our patch to set.

The best would have been that the bike shop in Cooperstown had a tire to replace our damaged one. They did have a tire that would fit, but it's a bit bigger than we want. We bought it anyway (Jeff at the shop was really helpful and nice), but decided not to bother to change to it right away because our dollar bill fix was still holding nicely.

While we were in Coopestown, we bought a few things we needed to resupply like batteries. We also did what we came for: we explored the Baseball Hall of Fame. Brett visited once with his grandparents as a child, but Jenny had never been. Brett grew up with baseball, and it was fun for him to share his love of baseball with Jenny, and we both enjoyed taking our time walking around the museum looking at all of the exhibits.



Outside of Cooperstown, there was a big hill. About half way up that hill, Brett complemented Jenny on her excellent pedaling contribution. “You're doing a lot of work back there!” he said. “You know how I know? Cuz I'm not!” Thanks, Brett.

All joking aside, Jenny did take on much of the pedaling for the rest of the evening's ride because after we left Cooperstown Brett's knee was bothering him. He took some Ibuprofen a little while out and tried to go easy on it, but his left knee was still bothering him the rest of the ride.

Brett has to hold the brakes down to keep the bike from moving backwards while Jenny takes some pictures.

We saw some really beautiful sights on the evening's ride to Gilbert Lake State Park. We saw fields full of daisies, spectacular views from atop the hills we climbed, a few birds of prey in the skies, and four deer grazing in the fields. We also got a surprise amateur fireworks display as we biked by a house that was having a party! Our evening destinations always seem to take longer to get to than anticipated. We thought we were just a few miles away for hours. We ended up getting to the park after dark, around 10:30 P.M.. Despite the late hour, Brett set up the tent while Jenny cooked egg noodles, broccoli, hot dogs and cheese, and added a little spice that made a delicious dinner. Then we took a short but warm shower (the kind where you push the button and the water stays on for 15-20 seconds until you push it again) and went to bed.

One of the many deer we've seen along the road.

9 comments:

  1. Yes! First comment! I feel special.

    Still sounds like a great adventure, guys.

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  2. the first thing this morning (well, close to the first thing....)i checked to see if you posted anything new and you did! sorry to hear brett's knee is hurting but glad you were able to pedal a little extra to allow him to rest some. weird about all the flats. we picked blueberries yesterday. it's getting close to the end of blueberry season in florida but i imagine you'll be finding lots of spots along the way to pick fresh fruit. sending lots of love to you both...

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  3. Thanks for posting every day guys! It's been so much fun reading about your adventures - for someone who is confined to sitting and laying down while I wait for the baby, it has been awesome getting to read all about your adventures - in some ways I can feel like I'm actually out there doing something this summer! :) Just think - even though you've had some flat tires - the rains are washing the roads down for you so they're clean for the rest of the ride...and if you had two bikes you'd be changing flats on four tires, not two!!! :) Can't wait to continue reading your blogs!!!

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  4. Gotta love Darleen's logic!
    I'm working this weekend, so following you virtually is all the more fun for me. Several people here have marvelled at not only the adventure, but the beautiful blog.
    Lovies,
    Mom

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  5. Am I the only one who cries every time I read this? I love you guys and miss you already.
    ~Guy~

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  6. We love reading about your adventures! And what a beautiful chronicle you are making of them! Thanks for sharing the stories :)

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  7. This sounds like so much work and fun!!!! I'm so excited to read more about these biking adventures. What an amazing experience for an obviously incredible duo! Enjoy the ride:)

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  8. Enjoyed today's blog. Watch that knee. Ibuprofen and ice are live savers but the knee is telling you something. Don't know how much adjusting your bike allows but knee pain on a bike, at least a traditional bike, usually means the distance from seat to pedal needs adjusting. I am afraid I don't know too much about recumbents but you might check at the next bike shop. OK, today's question: what do you do with the bike and all your gear when you are away from them visiting sights, like the Baseball Hall of Fame?

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  9. Actually laughed out loud and had tears in my eyes while reading this post(Guy you're not the only one). You both express yourselves so well in telling your stories, that I feel like I'm right there with you guys.
    Love and miss you both!
    <3 Selena

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