Part I - Portsmouth, Oh

I made it just south of Waverly, 34 of the 58 miles to Portsmouth, to White Lake.

It started out nice enough, cooler than expected, but sunny for the most part.

The winds were exactly what we expected unfortunately. Mostly annoying cross breezes in the beginning, the turned to head winds that occasionally make you feel like you hit a wall.

My brother-in-law Nick was my companion for a good deal of the ride, until just outside of Waverly.

I began to really struggle on the hills and preferred to ride them alone. I really hate feeling like I'm slowing others down, so he picked up his pace and stopped waiting at the top of the hills for me.

I turned on to 23 and bikes for a short mile or two with traffic, passing places my family had stopped on the way to or from my Grandma's.

I had just made the turn where 104 splits off when I remembered that I was in the home stretch for the first stop. Deciding to take a quick stop.

That's when it happened.

I pulled onto the gravel drive and forgot to unclip my sandal.

Yup, my first fall was witnessed not only by all of th traffic on 23, but radio support and an ambulance.

Well, at least I was in good company.

I waved them off with what I hope was a sheepish grin, caught my breath and continued on my way.

I hit the causeway that ran through the lake and was slammed with head/cross winds again. I knew that I was done, had hit my limit.

A quick turn off that bridge and I was in the first rest stop where Nick and his wife Ang were waiting.

"Where's the food?" were the first words out of my mouth.

They both pointed to the top of a hill and replied, "Up at the top of the stairs."

"Stairs? I can do stairs," were my famous last words.

The wonderful organizers had put the snack pavilion at the top of one last wicked hill. My legs burned before I even made it half way up.

Bananas, granola bars and orange wedges never tasted so good.

Nick took off to finish the last leg to Portsmouth and shortly thereafter Pete and his other brother Stephan came rolling in, having completed three legs of the 118 mile trip down.

We all hung together until they were rested enough to continue on.

I hopped into the car with Ang and drove to the day's finish line.

"I cannot go to school today"

I feel like little Peggy Ann McKay in the Shel Silverstein poem "Sick."

But I can't ride TOSRV tomorrow, my knee feels all tweaky.

My rear break is too loose?

It's too windy?

Too sunnny?

Oh, all right, fine.

We arrived in Columbus in the wee hours of this morning, bikes and camping gear in tow, and adventure in our hearts. I dropped into the bed at my father-in-law's around 2 and suddenly 8 o'clock came to early. My body was not yet willing to give up on sleep, but apparently my brain had other plans.

"It's light outside, so it must be time to get up!" it kept shouting at me.

I rolled out of bed and wandered upstairs to the kitchen for my required cup of coffee: it was time to get the day moving.

After a leisurely breakfast of yummy bagels and cold cuts, we moved outside to start organizing our gear: rolling and repacking our tent, stuffing sleeping bags that had just been tossed into the car, into their stuff bags, the hunting down of biking gloves that had gone astray from their helmets during the trip.

We adjusted my seat (to hopefully eliminate the tweaky knee that resulted during the last long ride), gave my handle bars a tiny turn up (wish I had done that a year and a half ago), and tightened the aforementioned loose rear break.

My saddle back has been packed with tools and spare tubes that I am completely unsure of how to use in the event of an emergency. But I did receive coaching on that as well. "Pull out the tools and the tube and then just play dumb. Someone will stop to help you," were my husband's sage words.


Excellent, no problem there.


Okay, yes, I should learn how to change a tire. Bicycles do not come with AAA after all. And how big of deal is it when I already know how to tighten my breaks and align my gears? One of these days....


The weather forecast had been promising, mid 60s and sunny. 


That has since changed to mid 50s, cloudy and winds at 25 mph from the WSW.


Great. We'll be bike SSE.

Sunday is slightly better. The winds drop to 12-15 mph but shift to coming out of the WNW, the direction we'll be heading.

Good times.

Here's to hoping that the weather man is wrong.