And we continue.
Today began very wet. Big storms last night and everything was drenched. We began with packing our stuff and then we walked over to the school for breakfast, which was less than satisfying. Usually, we have bagels, cereals, muffins, juices, everything we want. But today, the best we had were mass-produced cinnamon French toast and some Cheerios. So not great, but still filling. Then we set off. A pretty normal day, cloudy, not too wind, cool. Great day for riding. After a few hours of small sights here and there, we finally made it to the first point of interest, Niles. Niles is reeeaally small, like, Pittsford small, and almost all the restaurants were closed. We found only two places, a grill that happened to slip our eyesight and a small breakfast place. Now, our small ice cream shop in Hillsdale had a piece of paper on the front telling people of our venture. So, we thought they did a better job of telling people about the ride than last year. But, the shop didn't know, and only had two or three people working there. My mom and Mrs. Atherton weren't too hungry, but I was ready to eat, so I ordered a small stack of pancakes, and my mom, a glass of water. Funny thing is they were more focused on the big ordered than small things like glasses of water, so I actually got my pancakes before she got her water! After the quick snack, we got back on, and the clouds went away, much to our demise. It got much hotter, and the hills only grew in numbers, and we were very upset. Only a few small breaks in the action (i.e., the Old Rugged Cross Church, where the song was written, and two guys in a truck tossing me a Gatorade.) We also tried out our new energy bars, also disappointing, but still filling. And a really old Porsche, but I didn't want to stop again to take a picture. (Sorry grampa.)Then we just kept going until the end. Finally, we set our stuff up, which dried very quickly, and here we are. We have no wifi in the school, so you'll be reading this Monday, hopefully, and we'll continue our original schedule of posting.
We turn to mom.
(Amy)
Wow, what a day! After signing off here last night, the skies opened up and the thunder and lightning began. Along with some fireworks at midnight (who shoots fireworks in the rain??) and a train coming thru town at 3am (who apparently REALLY needed to announce their presence with the ol' train whistle. A lot.). We got up around 7ish, ate a basic breakfast (not as impressive as last year's choices), and packed up. Naturally, everything was soaked, so it weighed a ton. We left Bridgman about 8am and headed out.
What I have learned is that I'm definitely a year older, and Sam is most definitely a year stronger! Every leg of the day he would be quite a distance ahead of us and would kindly wait at the break stops for us. We stopped at all the break stops and refilled our water a lot. However, we were all exhausted by the time we got to Dowagiac (our stop for today). We had agreed that 10 mph was a pretty good pace, so that's what we tried to stick with. And according to Debbi's little computer we averaged 10.4 mph. But we're thinking we gotta slow it down tomorrow. It started humid and 70ish, and it ended sunny and HOT! So maybe we just dehydrated in spite of all the water? We'll tweak things tomorrow. Slow it down some (sorry Sam!) and go easier up the hills (there were a lot!).
42.7 miles for today in 5 hours and 37 minutes. Not bad for the first day!
Interesting sight of the day: The Old Rugged Cross church that Sam mentioned. Apparently the beginning of the song was written in Albion, and it was completed here in Dowagiac and first sung here in this church. Who knew?
Anyway, there is a breeze outside now, which is helping dry everything out. Now keep your fingers crossed for dry weather. No wifi here tonight (Sunday night) so I can't update, but last time we checked the weather, they were calling for strong storms all day Monday. Yuck.
We're off to Three Rivers in the morning. Hope we can post tomorrow to catch you all up!
No comments:
Post a Comment