0 km/h: Wake up. Then nap for 15 more minutes while feeling guilty about not getting out of bed.
2 km/h: Breakfast. Martha made us the best pancakes (four pancakes on the stove at once!) and eggs (over easy of course) and Bill had driven out before we had all gotten up to pick up some syrup from the store (thank you!).
5 km/h: Say goodbye to the Ernsts. Pile the last few things into Ody and hop on our bikes.
26 km/h: Always takes a while for the legs to warm up. Downhill feels weird, why can’t I pedal? Also weirdly high cadence today…turning into Timothy and Joel?
31 km/h: In the groove. Joel and I bike side by side on the trail. Avoid horse poop. Pass pedestrians. Avoid more horse poop. We were passing through a predominantly Amish county, so the paths were shared by both bikes and horse and buggies, hence the poop.
0 km/h: Arrive at first rest stop. Chill with Katherine in the park.
park time with Katherine, photo courtesy of Joel
33 km/h: We’re flying. I realize that I had been riding on my lower front gear the first leg, thus the high cadence and slow descents. Switch to higher gear. Happy lungs, less happy knee. Bridge of Dreams! Joel almost falls. I laugh at Joel.
bridge of dreams. moments before Joel (almost) falls. photo courtesy of Joel
25 km/h: A deceivingly shallow and lengthy hill. I try to mask my breathing so Joel doesn’t sense my struggle.
29 km/h: Back on flat trail. Joel: 26 (km/h)? Me: 29. Joel: Whoa. Me: Feels slow though.
0 km/h: Second stop. Lunch.
30 km/h:; Bike, bike, bike. I try to play a podcast but my airpods won’t connect. Listen to the wind. Pass two horse-and-buggies. Say hi to cyclists.
0 km/h: Third stop. Coffee! 50% off coffee! My knee throbs a bit even off the bike. That seems bad.
64 km/h: On the car with Joel and Katherine. We make awkward small talk. Are we really friends?
3 km/h: Rest stop in a park. Across the monkey bar. Up a tree.
30 km/h: Last leg of the day. Joel: we should go slower at the intersections. Me: yeah, yeah. [bikes headfirst into the periphery of an oncoming car] Me: Oops. Slows down for the rest of the intersections.
2 km/h: Joel and I accidentally happen upon a football rally in Massillon, OH. Apparently they are very good. We stop to watch the parade. Our host warns us about bad roads ahead. Deliberate: Let’s shuttle to the hosts’ place.
football rally for the Tigers! photo courtesy of Joel
64 km/h: Parth picks us up in Ody.
2 km/h: In the pool. First time swimming on this trip. Watching the sunset from the water was quiet and deafening.
pool. photo courtesy of Joel
0 km/h: Yummy salmon burger and Ohio sweet corn. Our hosts treated us to a delicious dinner as well as to some (mildly terrifying) stories about the bike route we will be taking in a few days into D.C. They have been riding tandem bikes all across the world and had all sorts of occurrences to share.
I have a computer on my bike that measures how fast I’m going in km/h. Since the second week, Joel and I would sporadically play a (extremely low skill) game where he guesses how fast we’re going. E.g. Joel: 26? Me: 28. Joel: Close. Me: Yeah.
We’ve been going much faster the last couple of weeks. Our average has slowly crept up so that even 30 km/h feels slow sometimes (30 km/h or 19 mi/h is, in fact, not slow). I feel peaceful in those moments when every muscle is tensing to the right tightness, when the breathing is measured, when the legs roll to the perfect beat. I treasure those moments.
Yet equally I’ve found myself more aware and appreciative of those moments at 0 km/h. Whether that is laughing with our hosts, floating in the pool, gazing out the car window, or even sitting in the dark writing this blog post right now.
We are in our final countdown to D.C. – just eight days from the end of this crazy, wonderful journey. I have spent many many hours hurtling (still huffing and puffing most of the time) at 30 km/h across the states, so now I am scrambling for those minutes or seconds I can savor at 0 km/h. I am (chronically) exhausted and (occasionally) hurting. I am looking forward to my own bed and a month worth of the same sunrise and sunset from the same window. I am also so reluctant to say goodbye. To revert back to a 0~5 km/h day will be strange and foreign. But for now, cherishing the slivers of 0 km/h in a careening 30 km/h sprint to D.C. seems to push the end just a little further away.
This may be the last time I blog, so thank you to all of you who have followed my pretentious, rambling, wacky thoughts along the way.
Sincerely,
Sophia