Suffering

Yesterday it rained. And rained, And rained. 80+ miles of constant rain. Imagine pulling on a soaked cotton diaper and sitting in it on a bicycle seat for 6.5 hours. That's what you need on the 2nd day. The only time it didn't rain was once we were at Clifty Falls Inn. Cleaning the bikes without a hose was a real treat. After lunch it was so "cold" are fingers went numb. They probably didn't like us at Subway as we were so wet we just literally dripped puddles on the floor.

The trip is already a blur. One flat .89 miles out on 1st day, me clipping a dog with my pedal and hollering for everyone to sprint away from Cugo, Heidi not clipping out in time and falling over --ah -- so many memories.

Woke up on Day three to fog which burned off quickly. The sun was stunning coming through the trees. And we traded a day of rain and cold fingers for a very very hot day. For the third day I've had no appetite and find solid food a bit hard to handle. And then -- finally -- I had an appetite at dinner and actually got a good portion of food in.

It is hard to know what day is harder than another but once you start climbing they are all hard. And now to top it off we are tired. Our undersides are chapped, our legs tired, now we're starting to suffer.

If yesterday's theme was rain, today's was dogs and planes. Climbing a steep rise early in the day I dropped my chain, just as 2 dogs sprung an attack on the guys with us. Chain on and up the climb -- they had energy for us as well but a stern stay kept them at bay. Later in the day a HUGE St. Bernard ambushed us out from under a porch -- fortunately heard the bark and looked for him before he charged so were able to get away. A little down the road and a pit bull took chase. Several others weren't interested but it made for an interesting day.

At one point in the day we heard the unmistakeable roar of a fighter jet -- saw one to our right but knew there was another. One veared off and went right over our heads (or at least it felt like it!) with a supersonic speed based on the sound delay. We of course think the pilot saw us, and more importantly me pulling, and was so impressed he flew over for a closer look. Very cool to hear that roar so close overhead.

We also say a yellow bi-wing plan later in the day. Very classic look.

Now that it wasn't raining it was back to enjoying scenery -- lots of corn fields, soybean, hay and John Deere tractors (keeping Jim happy). Unfortunately the only time we see shade is when there are climbs! Had one extremely long climb today, maxed out at 10% but was beautiful -- only shade was on the wrong side of the road so had to cheat and cross the center line on occasion!

Liked going into this lodge more than the past two days -- no 21% climbs but then again the views weren't quite as good either! Weird to have gone all the way down to the Ohio River too, tend to forget how many miles we are riding!

So three days and 322 miles down which is by far the most I've done in three days. By FAR! Three days to go and some of the worst to come. Wish me luck!