Monday, June 14, 2010

Day 7

Stats
Net Elevation gain: -157 ft.
Average Speed: 8.3 mph
Top Speed: 31.2 mph
Time spent biking: 6 hours
Total time for the day's travels: 9 hours
Miles biked today: 50.5
Total for trip: 325.5 miles

We started off today with a great breakfast of granola, blueberries, nectarine and soymilk! It was so yummy. Maybe this will become our regular first breakfast of the day.

Om Nom Nom!

After we packed up camp and pedaled out of the campground, we got to coast down the huge hill that we'd climbed the night before. Jenny was a little nervous, but Brett made sure to use the breaks a LOT and we made it safely to the bottom.

We got going later than we had hoped we would, and were both feeling out of sorts. Brett was whiny. He was tired, his knee was hurting, the bike was dirty, his cleats weren't positioned quite right on his shoes, the breaks were a little lose, he was hungry, and we had a long way to go. Jenny was frustrated that Brett's seat was squeaking. Not a good combination. It also started raining again.

After few miles we pulled over to fix the squeaking seat. It took several minutes of figuring out the seat's anatomy before Brett finally found two screws to tighten that took away the squeak! The squeak came back a little bit, but not at as strong, and now we know where to look first to fix it.

We passed this "bear" made out of hay.

We returned to traveling west on Route 17C. We stopped for lunch on the side of the road, eating what we were carrying. A bicyclist named Eric stopped by on his ride during his lunch hour. It was fun to talk to him, and explain about our recumbent tandem. The food was great, too: crackers & cheese, avocado and carrot, and soy milk and granola, finishing with some carob-covered raisins. At the end of lunch, Brett also fixed the cleats on his shoe! This helped enormously with one of the issues he had been having trouble with in the morning.

A quick picture after we are finishing up our lunch by the side of the road.

There were a few smallish hills, but we sang and talked our way through them. They really weren't that bad, because we had picked the longer but less hilly way to go. Most of the later afternoon was great riding along Route 96, which we turned onto in Owego. We saw more groundhogs then you could shake a stick at, and we stopped for strawberries at a roadside stand. The strawberries were SO good that we ate the whole quart in one sitting before going on. Yum.

Jenny LOVES strawberries!

Brett had a nice conversation with Guy, his brother, in the afternoon, too. Good feelings from comments on the blog and conversations with folks back home, combined with the good time we were making helped us feel really good on the bike. We were feeling so good that a short rain shower (6 out of 7 days have had at least some rain) didn't dampen our spirits. A longer rain might have, though, and a few frustrated words may have been uttered when it started.

We were planning to follow smaller roads into Ithaca, but we missed our turn and ended up taking Rt. 96 right into town, where we picked up our directions to Sara/Jeff/Ben/Jem's house. The hill down into Ithaca was a blast, a 4-mile cruise down one long hill. We stopped briefly at a Co-op in town before making one more push 2 miles UP again. We were in good moods, but it was a brutal hill up Elm St. but the views of the sunset from the top of the hill were great.

We went into this great co-op in Ithaca to get some dinner.

We pulled in at dusk, Jeff set us up in the Common House guest room, we took showers and went to bed, and looked forward to a day off from biking.

The sky was beautiful when we made it up the hill to Ecovillage, where Sara, Jeff, Ben & Jem live.

5 comments:

  1. i like reading about the food you are eating. your meals sound/look yummy! i imagine the time you spend with sarabeth, jeff and their kidlings will be entertaining, relaxing and enlightening. thanks for the google map post. i had fun checking out your route.

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  2. Your food looks amazing!

    And, I know how terrible it is to have to put up with the rain. One day when we were on the AT, when Jen & I woke up it was pouring and we decided we just couldn't face getting out of the tent that day =P But you can do it!! =)

    And finally, I know others have said it - but, be careful with that knee! Mine is forever injured which means I have to wear a knee brace to walk and it's no fun. Better to take it slow and easy and not risk something bad happening =)

    Love reading the blog, the pictures are fantastic, have fun!!

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  3. Hey guys! That first breakfast looks tasty! I am definitely going to try that. Of course, by 'that,' I mean adding a second breakfast onto my first :)

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  4. Hi Brett and Jenny!

    It was wonderful to run into you on Monday, and I am a bit envious of the adventure you are on. As others have said, I am also sharing your blog with friends and family out here as it is a wonderful way to share your experiences such that we can live vicariously through you.

    After work yesterday, I encountered another cross-country cyclist, though near the end of his journey rather than the beginning. He departed from Portland, Oregon, and will be heading home to Paris next week. When I relayed my encounter with you, he started gushing: "Oh they will have so much fun! I am tired, but wish I could do again." (Please read that last bit with a French accent, heehee.)

    I wish you immense success and joy on your journey, and look forward to seeing your progress. Cheers!

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