Folks, I have gotton so far behind that I'm going to do some quick highlights of the last four days and leave it at that! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up now that our days are going to be shorter!
Grafton to Hannibal was the second BIG DAY of the trip. It was billed as 93 miles, but Laurie broke the news early that it would be more like 97. Then, the night before the ride (I guess she didn't dare tell us sooner, for fear of mutiny), she told us that it was going to be very, very hilly. The hills would not be rolling, but rather, roller coasters...the kind of hills where you have no chance for momentum. The other problem was that we were heading to Hannibal, and a lot of riders really wanted to explore the home town of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). You can't ride 97 miles and arrive before the museum closes at 5:00. Well, most of us can't.
That meant a lot of riders opted to bike to Clarksville and shuttle in to Hannibal. I agonized most of the morning, thinking I could not make the whole ride. My legs were like lead pipes and I just couldn't warm up in the chilly, rainy, morning. (Except, no one else thought it was chilly.) In the end, I put on my leg warmers and kept pedaling. The big hills didn't start until the last 25 miles, and then they started with a vengeance. Two of them were realy doozies, and a lot of people decided to shuttle rather than face those monsters, but the van was pretty full, and I decided to give it a try. In the end, I'm sure glad I did. After the first two, the rest were long and sometimes dreary, but doable, and our reward was some fantastic downhill runs. Laurie, our guide and sweep rider, had to hang back with me (she could have done the whole thing in half the time without me), but I think she had a good ride, too. The fast riders that didn't opt for sight-seeing got to town by 3:00 and I made it by 4:45. I was thrilled, as that was a tough ride on a recumbent, but I am glad that I proved that recumbents can, indeed, climb hills. Slowly. Like a turtle.
Hey, its pushing midnight, and even though tomorrow is a rest day, I shouldn't be up, so I'm going to call it a night and try to get back to pictures and prompt updates soon. Bucky the Bike got a tune up at Bichel's bike shop, so I'll pick him up tomorrow, go for a spin around town, and be ready to roll again. I think the next stop is Muscatine, IA, which was the last stop on RAGBRAI last year. I'm getting into familiar territory!
Happy trails,
Dusty
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