60 miles of what? Oh yeah BIKING.

Today we had a long day of travel along with wanting to see some things along the way.   We started off about 7:15am looking to have breakfast on the road.  We stopped at this awesome diner called Deb's. While on the road we stopped for beer in Rockland and walked around a bit.   The highlight was definitely the breakwater walk to the light house.  Dad has really wanted to see some lighthouses but this has been difficult because they are extra miles off the path making it hard.  

One of our goals has been to be at our next stop by dinner.   We rolled into Belfast after 6pm with six miles to ride.   We could not stop long but went over the bridge near  harbor walk that looked really cool.

About a mile from the hotel dad's knee gave him trouble.   To the point that he had to get off his bike and walk, he was limping noticeably.    

In was 8pm and nothing but the grocery store was open.  Tony and I rode our bikes to get turkey sandwiches.   This is the second night in a row we have had to eat sandwiches at our hotel.  

Pop!

We had an eventful first day of riding.   We were pumped to head out.  About 1.5 hours in dads tire popped!   We had our first quick fix and it went smoothly.  We stopped by the flagship LL bean store. Bought a large bike pump which we decided was necessary because pumping the tires with a little pump sucked!  We ate whoppie pies which were awesome.   Overall the day was a success!  Ready for day two after some sleep and fuel. 

The vote was 1. Pumpkin 2. orange 3. peanut butter 4. classic.

'Twas the night before wheels down...and

We went downtown to hydrate with beer before the adventure!  We were able to get to two breweries which means we are closer to getting our free Maine Brewers guild truckers hat.  It's gonna be awesome!   Mom and dad got their bikes and of course there were some small issues that included a slight deflation in the tires.   Our big pump was too big so we had to pump it with our little pump!   That takes work..whew.   

We drove through 9 states to get here.  I'll never get over how small these states are.   Here are just s few: 

The count down begins!!!

SCHLEPP arrived!

Our mascot arrived!   Now our trailer SCHLEPP is complete!   Can't wait to see what this guy look like rolling down the road.   

Sag wagon! Just kidding! :)

The week leading up to today has been up and down emotionally.   After our terrible ride 4 weeks ago.  Things had not been going great.   Tony's knee had been hurting and we were not riding as often.   Last Sunday his knee really started to hurt and he was thinking that the trip wouldn't happen for him.   We all were starting to be very disappointed.   He decided last minute to get a doctor's opinion.   We love our nurse practitioner.   She is down to earth and wouldn't steer us in the wrong direction.  She said it was his IT band.   He had a second opinion with the same result.   That doctor was humorous and said "so you were pulling a bike trailer up a mountain?"   Interpreted to mean..."ok, no wonder your leg hurts, silly!"   He hit up physical therapy and now we ride!   We will be doing some stretches and icing everyday along the way but we are both feeling good about the trip.  

What time is it?   Road trip time!   We gotta get to Maine to start this 

adventure!  

The bike ride that made me hate bike riding

Earlier in the year Tony and I had this brilliant idea that we would take Schlepp to Shenandoah National Park.  We would ride 50 miles out, camp, and then ride back the next day.  Later we realized that we wanted to car camp and make gourmet campfire food, which you can't do if you only want to haul 25 lbs.  We decided to get up early and head to the campsite.  We parked and headed north with Schlepp.  The first half was pretty good.  The hills were tough but we managed.  We knew we would have a hard time coming back.  There was a huge hill that would take close to an hour to get to the top of.  The downhill was fun though.  On the way back Tony took Schlepp.  We had to ride through a dark tunnel.  The speed limit is 25 mph, but people like to drive fast so you could say the speed limit was 50 mph.  As I approached the tunnel I became nervous.  There had been many cars now and I had to be very vigilant about where they were.  In the tunnel I became scared.  I tried to move over a little and that was when I realized that there was a curb.  I immediately fell off my bike.  Of course I couldn't get up because I was clipped in.  The cars in the tunnel were then forced to slow down.  I am lucky that I didn't get run over.  I came out of the tunnel walking (and crying).  A nice couple stopped to see if I was okay.  My knees were bleeding but I was fine.  Tony was a bit ahead but he quickly realized I was not behind him and turned around.  I took a few minutes to compose myself before we rode on.  After about 10 minutes the pain set in.  My knees hurt!  We started our way up the big hill.  It took over 30 minutes to go three miles.  With about 9 miles to go Tony mentioned his knee was starting to hurt.  He slowed down and I was too close and I panicked, couldn't unlock in time, and fell again!  This time ending up with a bloody elbow and my other knee taking the blow. After I recovered and took off in front of Tony.  His leg was really hurting and he needed to take it easy.  I made it to the campground, but the minute I entered I had to walk.  I was so tired from falling and the hills.  I eventually (3 minutes) got back on my bike and headed to the car.  I picked him up at the gas station at the entrance to the campground.    

Culpeper Fondo

We decide to do another Fondo.  This one was a 62-miler through central Virginia.  It had smallish hills and wasn't too terrible.  I managed to keep it at about 15.4 mph.  I was able to finish in just over 4 hours.  There was a good lunch afterwards.  We didn't stop to eat goodies this time.  Decided to save all the burned calories for the BBQ lunch and of course our standard Slurpee which we always have to have now.