Last night I made a poor decision. I took several of the hosts blankets and thought they'd be suitable for a sleeping pad. Maybe if I was in grade school. Won't make that mistake again. That floor is hard. So much for labor saving ideas. Give me my Thermarest anytime.
The trifecta has mostly passed: heavy rains (50mm+), high winds and cold (upper 40s). The morning did greet us with some rain and chilly temps so, we took extra efforts to prepare ourselves for riding conditions. Fred just piles the layers on like it's subarctic conditions, 4 layers plus a Goretex shell with a hood up, Goretex pants, full gloves. The list goes on. He likes to stay warm. All that would make me turn into a puddle of sweat.
I put on a short sleeve synthetic t under a long sleeved North Face synthetic top with a pair of tights over my riding shorts, regular cycling gloves, sunglasses ( keeps crap out of my eyes but seeing is marginal with rain & road crap accumulating on the glasses) and a cycling cap under my brain bucket (helmet). Now the hard part: a shell. Nylon vest or nylon long sleeves ( you know the bright yellow shells bikers love) that's the question? I started with the vest but felt I was getting too wet so I stopped and switched to the full jacket. It's not fully waterproof so I wouldn't die of overheating. That lasted until I got to the big climb of the day.
As I looked at the 5 to 600 yard long "monster", knowing I would sweat to death in even this short ascent in the long sleeves, I stopped and switched again to the vest. Goods decision. Finally. I stayed with that get up until it started raining sideways again.
Before long, the rain abated and it was time to shed the tights. Easy to do when you're looking for a reason to pause anyway and your luggage carrier is handy. Fred's shell pants are as much as I saw him change. Actually I was pretty wet but stayed warm as long as I was cycling. It's the human furnace thing. When we stopped for a coffee shop break or whatever, the full shell came back out of the bag. The day was VERY breezy.
Fortunately we had a lot of wind blowing in our favor for a long while (45ish miles), then our direction sent us into the teeth of the wind. For about 30 miles we rode along at between 8 & 11 mph. That increases saddle time. Never good. Never. The good news is the terrain was flat. Clearly some of the stiffest wind so far. The rest of the 83 miles we did today were primarily side winds. We were zipping along at 12-13 then!
As we approached Wallaceburg, our destination, a van pulled over some ways in front of us and stopped. Uh oh. What's this? Nothing at all actually. The woman driving saw Fred's NZ flag and flipped out. Her husband is a Kiwi as are her 2 kids and the husband was with her. We sat there on the side of the road and the Kiwis chatted for a while. No interpreter necessary. ( 2 countries separated by a common language.) We bid adieu and went back to our journey.
Today we crossed the1000 mile mark with the total over wing about
That should bring us to about 1,028 miles
Tomorrow we return to the States at the Sombra ferry entering into Michigan. Can't wait.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers, KPW
Just to let you know that down in New Zealand we are very much enjoying your very interesting commentary. We know that Fred has only one speed!. Hope the rain stops and you get some following winds.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes