August 9 & 10

We rode 122 miles in 8 hours 15 minutes on the bike, averaging 14.7 mph. We had 6400 feet of ascent and burned almost 8000 calories today. Yes, the climbing is definitely back as we are now in the Adirondack Mountains. We will be experiencing lots of uphills, and steep ones from here to the Atlantic Ocean. We will ride out of the Adirondacks tomorrow and out of New York.

The last section of our map, Section Eleven begins tomorrow as well. We have 450 miles left to ride and five days to get it done. This adventure is in it’s final week and is winding down. Suffice it to say we are experiencing a mixture of sad and glad feelings over this. More reflections on that at a later date.

We experienced 4 miles of the worst road so far on the trip in the morning (in my opinion). Imagine gluing one million quarter inch ball bearings onto the surface of a road. Riding over the surface provided us with thousands of jarring vibrations causing numbness to hands, feet & seat. We couldn’t get any speed up on that road (because of the rough surface) to get through it quicker and it was quite rough on the tires as well. It caused at least one puncture on that section of road.

We did see several beautiful lakes during our ride today and we are staying in Newcomb, NY right across the road from a small lake here. This is a place of cool summer evenings because of the mountain location, of course. It is easy to see why a person would be drawn to this place. The beauty and peaceful setting is wonderful. It is rather sparsely populated offering long drives to things like malls, hospitals, movie theaters, etc.

We found out earlier this week that my sister from Pennsylvania, Irene Wise, her husband Bob and their oldest daughter Jen were coming to visit us at this stop. They were here when I got in at 7:15pm. (my latest arrival on the trip yet) and we had some time with them in the evening and then again on Sunday morning for worship at Newcome United Methodist church, before they headed home. It was wonderful to see familiar faces and to catch up on what’s happening with them. We are very grateful for all the trouble they went to make this stop. What a special blessing!

Today was a great day of rest, sleeping in until 7:15am and taking a nap in the afternoon as well. Time for a final weekend bike cleaning and it’s off the bed.

Dan