Thursday, June 10, 2010

1120 down for the first third

6-10-10 Day 13: Conneaut, Ohio to Hudson, Ohio: 91 miles in 6:29 hrs: Rt 20 west to Rt 534 south to Rt 303 west to Rt 91 south.

Ok, so the first third of the trip is in the bag, and by gosh did it fly – 1120 miles in 13 days. Woke up to a fantastic day, and with the wind out of the northwest I didn’t have a dead on headwind to contend with. Go going at around 9 AM and road back to Rt 20 and headed west to Geneva. Nice and flat for the road, and a total piece of cake getting into Geneva in under 2 hours. Then I headed south on Rt 534 and enjoyed a fairly good cross tail wind and a very good section of country road. Traffic was light and the sun got hot. I kind of went in and out of Ashtabula and Trumbull Counties. Was actually getting the speed up with the cross tailwind, and was enjoying the hell out of it after battling headwinds for days on end. Feeling great after jamming for the past 12 days, and I really surprised myself with the amount of pressure I was putting on the pedals.

I think half of my good feeling today was the fact that I was headed to the homefront with loved ones and friends just down the road. That’s one heck of a motivation to put it down. Plus, Judy was going to meet me after she got off of work, and we figured that she’d be somewhere on Rt 534 in Farmington or Southington. So I was just flaming it down the road with my little train. Then the wheels came completely off the train, not because of me, but because of wonderful Trumbull County. Yup, once I got into Trumbull Co. the second time the roads went from wonderful to total, unadulterated shit. This was just pathetic. Matter of fact this was THE worst road I’d ridden on since the beginning of this trip. No kidding. This stretch of road was so bad, so potholed and rutted that I thought I’d loose a bloody filling if I was seated when I hit the Big Daddy.

I was cursing out loud several times, just amazed at how crappy that road was. Had to ride in the middle of the road many times just to avoid the long, horizontal cracks and crevasses in the highway. While in the middle of the road – no need to turn around because you could hear the traffic coming down the road in back of me by the horrendous rumbling sounds the tires would make on the roadway. Sounds like traffic driving down the road across an endless stretch of rumble strips. Ok, so I hope I’ve shamed Trumbull Co. enough with story, and I proudly present them with the crown of crumbly pavement. Wear it well! The crap finally ended at the jcn of Rt 534 and Rt 88. South of that I got some fantastic road back heading into Southington. And that’s where Judy and I connected. We decided to have her drive up the road and find a good place to pull over so I could ditch my yak and front panniers.

She found this wonderful little produce stand where the lady was selling home-made canned jams and jellies and some fresh strawberries. I pulled in pretty parched and Judy handed me an ice cold coke and a basket of strawberries. Priceless!! Sat at a picnic table in the warm summer sun and munched on the berries and swigged the tasty coke. I downed the whole basket of berries in about 10 min. Great little place, and the lady informed us that they sell their own farmed freshwater prawns in the fall. We’re definitely going back there.

Now Judy had warned me about the section of Rt 534 south of the Rt 82 jcn. She told me it was just as crappy as the section as I had previously ridden on. Ok, I may be dumb but I’m not stupid. So I turned on Rt 303. I had looked at 303 last night, but really didn’t want to ride it….it has the most amazingly long false flat and series of climbs that stretch from Windham to Mantua. I so did not want to do that section of climbing to end the day. But with the prospect of doing another section of pave’ on Rt 534, I went with Judy’s suggestion. To Windham we went. And my recollections were dead on – just one long freaking climb of like 12-15 miles long. But with the cross headwind I had just a tinge of help.

Put it down hard and eventually motored through Windham, Freedom, Shalersville and Mantua. Then on through Streetsboro and into Hudson. Felt absolutely awesome the whole time. By the time I got into town I was 91 miles in for the day. A little later we had a crazy good home cooked meal by my dear mom, had a beer with dad and just chilled.

Wow. Can’t believe that I just cruised through 1120 miles from Houlton, Maine to Hudson, Ohio in 13 days. Some random thoughts: * My right thumb is just totally sore from up shifting in rear gears on the climbing. Never had that happen before. I mean my right thumb feels arthritic for gosh’s sake. Yesterday and today I really noticed how much that thumb hurt on each and every shift. * Legs have been sore to the touch for the past 10 days, yet I was able to shake the lethargy and DOMS round about 2 hrs into each day’s ride and get it going day after day. Makes me think that maybe I can just bang it out for weeks on end without taking rest days. * The westerly headwind is going to be my constant companion for pretty much the duration of this trip. Oh, maybe once in a while I’ll get a reprieve but most likely it’s part and parcel of riding east to west. As they say “Get used to it!”

* This first 1000 miles is by far harder than the first 1000 mile in Canada. Why? The relentlessness of the mt climbing through Maine, NH, Vermont and NY state. Let me tell you, I was using the little cookie/ littlest cog in the rear the very first day of riding in Maine – with no bloody yak!!

So that’s the story right now, just a third of the way through this trip. Since I finished about a week ahead of schedule, I’m going to chill for about a week, get some work done, and wait for Judy to have the opportunity to go along with me for about 3-4 days on my journey from here. We can probably get as far as middle to upper Michigan before she has to turn around and come back to Ohio.

I’m going to shut this down for about 5 days and give you all a break. I’m really not one to just blog about my mundane, everyday life away from travel and adventure. Blogging just to blog – not my thing. Don’t really see how any of you could really give a hoot about that. So I’ll get the blog ball rolling a couple of days before I leave on the second, much longer leg of this journey. Thanks for the look, and talk to you all soon. All the best……..Pete

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