Day 4, 44 miles, Friday May 29, 2009
Staunton "loop"
(my odometer: 45.3miles, 12.4 avg mph, 3hr 37min 41sec)
Max speed: 34 mph
Up at 6:00; 7:00 continental breakfast here: scrambled eggs, home fries, assorted fruit, sausage, bacon, orange juice and coffee; 8:00 on the road.
It rained a bit last night and when we got up it was just a bit overcast with mostly dry streets. Usually 8AM is a bit late for me to start a ride but I connected with Dick Harter, Gene Teaney and Jerri Cohen and we rode most of the day together. There were two options again today; short ride 44 miles and long ride 53 miles, we did the short ride. It was a beautiful ride through the country. The day was partly cloudy so we enjoyed the dryness and warmth of the sun. There were good roads and very little traffic. We enjoyed the mostly "gentle" rolling hills. The scenic views were gorgeous, especially with the sun out. The SAG was at 21 miles in the pretty, little town of Middlebrook. Barbara was there to greet us and had our energy snack foods spread out on a picnic table. This also is where we top off the water in our water bottles. At three miles back, Gene and Jerri left the route to do the extra miles in the long ride and Dick and I chose to do the short ride and rode the rest of the day together.
We arrived back at the hotel at 12:15, I cleaned my bike and then went back to my room to shower. We joined up again about 1:30 for lunch at Pampered Palate Café, a small sandwich shop downtown just a short distance from the hotel. Then I came back to hotel to laundry and then to route rap at 3 PM. ABB covered our lunch today rather than dinner. Also, RAP was at 3 PM and I think ABB made this change so cyclists could have the time flexibility to do something cultural in town if they chose to in the evening. It's working for me as I'm writing my journal much earlier today so won't have to be doing it late tonight and that's good for Ed also. Here's a reminder to many of you that follow my journey and website journals. At night when I finish writing, I email it to Ed and then he uploads it to my website that same night. He needs a bit of time [editor's note - LOTS of time when there's 83 MB of photos in a single day...] doing that back in Stafford Springs, CT. where he lives. If I am late emailing him, he is up even later doing the upload.
Ed created my website in 1999 and is my website manager. So he makes edit changes all year long as the need arises. There is absolutely no way the "Ride For Alzheimer's" could happen if I didn't have Ed's help.
Tomorrow is a 59 mile ride to Lexington and the forecast is for a sunny day with temps in the 70's.
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