Hills

Today we became cyclists. Not a group of only-ride-when-its-pretty-outside-or-we-feel-up-to-it cyclists. Real cyclist. We started our day at the chipper time 0f 6:30, waking up at St. Paul's Church. I am on trailer crew this week and so it was my duty to help load up for the day. When I exited the church around 7am, I found quite a heavy rain staring me in the face. This was not the case at 7:45 when we suited up and hit the road for the day. Cloudy and overcast, but at least no rain.

The first hour went without a hitch, and we put close to 20 miles behind us. However, as we approached what we thought to be our turn, a fellow rider named Molly came riding by in the opposite direction to tell us that the directions were wrong and we had missed our turn.

Day pretty boring so far? Cutting to the good stuff.

15 minutes later, our group of about 7 riders found ourselves huddled in a auto shop's garage while we ask yet again for directions while a torrential rain soaks our bikes waiting outside. Not just a drizzle, rather a storm that would make Florida in the spring time proud. Needless to say such a obstacle would not dissuade eager cyclists such as ourselves, we took to the streets in the 60 degree downpour, for quite a "damp" jaunt through the town. After another half hour of riding we took shelter outside of a dairy queen, where the van met us w/ delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in conditions that our leader described as "near hypothermic."

Post-lunch and getting colder still, we decided that there was no other choice around it, we would have to finish the last 30 miles in our sopping jerseys and spandex. Then we found the hills. These are what I would have probably considered "mountains" as I was able to achieve a top speed of 41.6 MPH down the side of one. I used to think 27 gears was way too many for a bicycle, but I see now that it is not nearly enough.

Moral of the story is that we tackled some pretty mean obstacles today, saw some beautiful scenery, and gained some serious confidence on what we can get through. While we were greasing our chains and cleaning off the muck, all most of us could say was "I can't wait to hit the road again tomorrow."

Cheers,
Brent