May 28, 2019
Drive Day: One must serve penance for one's fun
Ah, nothing like 10 hours sitting in a car to get you ready for a week’s worth of biking! We knew this would be a drive day, and there was no way around it, but the intellectual understanding of that task versus the physical and psychological toll it takes are two entirely different things.
I could feel my IT bands tightening by the mile. Margaret was clever enough to bring along one of Dexter's chew balls, and used it as a poor man’s physical therapy tool, placing it under her hamstrings and gluteus while we drove along. Smart woman, that Margaret.
Things went generally according to plan, and my expectation that there would be a Gawd-Awful traffic jam south of Chicago did not come to be, so it was a relatively traffic free journey. We happily podcasted our way down the road ... MoBituaries, Invisibilia, Household Name, and My Favorite Murder ... all highly recommended.
There were a couple instances of Biblical level rainstorms en route though. One in Ohio and another just outside of Pittsburgh. Both were heavy enough to slow interstate traffic to about 40 mph, and see a lot of folks pull over to wait it out. Better to have rainfall like that happen in the car instead of on the bike.
Tonight we are staying at a Hampton Inn that is unbelievably plush. It is in downtown Pittsburgh, very close by the start of the GAP trail’s beginning/end point at the confluence of the three rivers. This room is so big you could hold a three on three basketball game. I can’t even get the entire room in a single frame. It was easy walking distance to many neat eateries in town and we went to a Thai resteraunt and we had a delicious meal.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We stumbled upon a huge bonus Easter egg when we checked in. The young man at the desk was making pleasant conversation and asked (probably required by corporate) “what brings you to Pittsburgh?” We said we were riding the bike trails to DC, and he quickly responded, “Oh, then you’ll be keeping your car in our lot?”
That option had never occurred to me and I’d planned on driving to a parking garage a couple blocks away tomorrow morning before we started our ride. “Is that an option?, I asked. Indeed it was, and that makes our “take off” tomorrow as easy as you could ask for.
It’s 9 PM as we type, and we are ready to hit the sack. One should never fixate on the weather forecast when you’re about to go on a non-delayable or non-negotiable bike ride, but the forecast says dry skies until 1 PM when there is a 50% chance of rain, which then ratchets up to 70 - 90 percent chances thereafter. That my friends is called Motivation ... to get up early, to get organized, and get down the road. Marg and I agree that we are both in that happy state of Motivation and ready to do what must be done.
See you all tomorrow, weather and Wifi allowing.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 3 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |