2020, Day 9: Resistance

This was one of those weekends where I put dad's blog on my to-do list and then accidentally checked it off without doing it. You know how that goes. My apologies for my negligence.

In the meantime, Dad's finished up week 2 of this trip and day 9 of riding. He's biked about 365 miles as the crow flies, but closer to 500 on actual pavement, not to mention the back-and-forthing between starting points, hotels, and sight-seeing. A hard day of riding befits the end of a hard week, and we're hoping that dad can use his day of rest for actual rest.

Scenery is beginning to turn into the storybook of the NorthEast, complete with greenery everywhere, nice streams and waterfall walks, and Amish horse-and-buggy appearances frequenting the road. It's truly unfamiliar territory, and dad's seeing it in a way that very few tourists get to experience, skipping the cities altogether and opting for back roads and bicycle paths.

From Dad:

I sound like a world traveler. We started in Nashville, stopped over in Joppa, and ended up in Athens today. All in 4 hours.

Killer day. The first 10 miles out of Nashville was one long hill--not steep, but steady. Then the road between there and Battle Creek was closed, so we detoured down a no-shoulder 3 mile lane (only 6 cars passed me) then 8 more miles up and down rolling hills into Battle Creek. Battle Creek is no flat city. By the time I was to the other side of town, I had ridden 30 miles, but my legs were mush.

But I pressed on 11 more miles to Athens; thankfully, almost flat terrain with a slight downward slant--to make up for the uphill in the morning, I guess. 41.5 miles in 3:55. Glad tomorrow is a day of rest to give the body a break. 289 miles this week, 418 total so far, in 9 riding days. One full day ahead of schedule.

Reviewing progress so far, after 418 miles of riding, I am only 1.5 degrees east of where I started, and I am actually west of where I was at the end of last week! But Monday, we turn the corner and head east again.

Hope you have/had a good rest day, Dad! See you back on the road today!