2020, Day 19: Uphill Both Ways

September 24, 2020

From Dad:

Nasty, nasty hills today. Four of them, a mile or longer each, one right after another, very steep, took me to lowest gear on each one. It was hills all day long, but those were especially notable.

We really didn’t have anything else to do today, so we rode. It was cloudy, but temperatures reached mid-70’s, and humid.

I didn’t average a very fast speed today, though I exceeded 35 mph a few times on he downhills. But the up-hills nailed me. Rode 59.4 miles in 5½ hours, finishing about 6 miles west of Avon at Highway 36.

We went to the sacred grove for a little while. I have to get permission from the mission president to teach my lesson via zoom meeting from there Sunday. I could switch to Hill Cumorah if I had to. Waiting for his reply.

A few years ago, dad biked the Rockies. Literal mountains, steep grades, headwinds, and so on. Nowadays, he's complaining about some hillocks in the Great Lakes region. My, how the mighty have fallen. All the flat terrain and restful sightseeing are spoiling dad. I'd been under the assumption that after crossing the Mississippi, dad's ride was supposed to be downhill, since, you know, water flows the other direction and all, but apparently it's uphill both ways on this trip.

Also, according to mom's reports, it smells like farm country and a dairy farm. Growing up at least partially in Washington, plenty of us have very clear memories of cow country, and I hope dad's being flooded with nursery memories right about now riding through it.

Mom's also sent tales of some ghosty houses appropriate for the season.

But the worst part? The hotel didn't have Wifi.

Talk about spooky. I'm not sure I'd much rather stay in a hotel without wifi than one with ghosts. At least wifi-supplied ghosts would have something better to do than torment you with boredom.

No wifi also makes it a little tricky to do things like upload videos and photos, but hotspot hocus-pocus brought us these beauts:

Dad's approaching 1000 miles and will likely hit it by the end of the week. Getting close!