Day 36: Hotel Luhman

You know, I’ll admit that I may have been a bit bold to plan today to be a 95 mile bike ride. In my defense, Don, the owner of the farm we were staying at was very enthusiastic about the route he planned for us and said we would be saving a lot of miles. I was easily convinced and said let’s go for it and dragged the rest of the group along with me so we could end the day at my aunt and uncles house but needless to say, today was hard. To start, we left right on time at 8 AM…not. If you think this group leaves on time then reread the rest of the blog because that’s just not true. Leo was the one dragging his feet in the morning so we are making absolutely sure he is up bright and early tomorrow! 

Another challenge we had was the wind. If you’ve been following along, then you know that the wind has a personal vendetta against us. For the past week we have been fighting headwinds and today was no different other than the headwinds being even more frustrating. Seriously, we started the day going East and the wind was blowing west. Then when we turned to go South, the wind turned too and was blowing guess where…North! One of us is cursed and a few more days of this and we are going to start voting people off like in Survivor. 

Some other highlights of the ride today are as follows: 

- chased by a chihuahua

- cheered on by two random girls in their front yard

- yelled at by two different people in cars

- trees :)

- a horse with little boots on its hooves (no pictures so sorry, still haven’t mastered taking photos while riding)

After a grueling 89 miles (shorter than expected woohoo!), we loaded up the bikes into my uncles trunk and called it a day. As we were driving back he pointed out a few sites and mentioned that I could turn off the air conditioning if I was cold because I kept rubbing my knees. I politely declined because I wasn’t cold, Dustin just somehow magically transferred all his knee problems to me and they felt like they were going to shatter if I didn’t massage the pain away. Anyways we got to my aunt and uncles house (nicknamed Hotel Luhman) and had possibly my favorite dinner of the trip. Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad (our usual greens are a piece of lettuce on a burger), and beer! I felt like I was in heaven and my stomach is still full about three hours later which is a testament to how much we all ate. We also got our bikes serviced by my uncle’s neighbor Randy who runs a program recycling old bikes and raising money (they’ve gotten almost half a million raised so far!). Julia just needed some new handlebar tape but as per usual my bike had loads of problems that we had to take care of. The primary problem was with some of the bearings that were making my entire gear cassette shift to one side when I pedaled. If that sounds scary and daunting with over 1000 miles left to go then I’m right there with you but we should be all good to go moving forward! 

By the way, we hit 2000 miles today!!! Or at least Dustin’s best guess is we hit 2000 miles. Either way we are taking the win and CT is starting to feel a whole lot closer day by day! 

Catching up with my aunt, uncle, and cousin who came over for the night was amazing! I also got to talk to my Grandma on the phone who called my aunt at the perfect time for me to say hello and tell her all about my bike trip! Now I am showered, with clean clothes, a stomach full of snickerdoodles, and feeling like today was definitely worth it. Tomorrow is 97 miles in 90 degree weather apparently which is going to suck, but it’s a problem for tomorrow’s Brian, and hopefully my knees will hold up throughout the day. 

Photo Dump:

“Leo, if we are still biking at 6:00, your head is going on a spike” - an irate Dustin at 8:45

**we ended today at 6:20, RIP Leo**