Plonker and I left Lakewood yesterday morning, about quarter to noon. I still had a bag of Doritos that I had from the night before but had never opened. Plonker opened his, but only ate a couple. We had 50 miles to go to Sandusky on fairly flat roads. We figured it was going to be an easy day, especially after all the hills and rain of the day before. We decided to stop some place for something to eat since we missed the hotel breakfast.
Apparently all the restaurants in town were the opposite direction of which we were headed. A few miles in we stopped at a little gas station for Gatorade and pressed on. It was pretty flat and most of the trip was one road. One thing we hadn’t counted on was muscle fatigue and tightness from the previous day.
Normally back home, with the hills and everything, we can average 12-13 miles an hour. We’re not racers here. Hell, I never ever said we were good! Flat areas, however, we’ve always been able to go at least 15 mph, even up to the mid 20’s when we hit our stride.
Here? Flat surface, one road? 12-13 mph.
We optimistically assumed that it was going to be basically an easy day, and that was the problem. Being optimistic.
It certainly was flatter. WAY flatter than the day before actually. But my muscles only had one speed. They didn’t hurt, but they were tight. Not in a way where you wake up and say “Holy fuck Batman! My legs are fucking TIGHT!” By all accounts we both felt good when we left. It was only after pedaling do you realize that they are lacking some strength that day.
So, anyway, we were still looking for a place to eat. Siri was not being a helpful bitch that day, the road sign that pointed to “Dining” didn’t lead to anywhere helpful except a skeezy little bar. Unless it was farther down the road, but fuck, we don’t want to ADD miles to this trip.
About 15 miles in we came to a little plaza, next to the power generation plant. There were a couple bars and a Mexican joint. Initially heading toward the bar, we opted for Mexican. Because, hey, we only have 35 miles to go!
It was a small place, and kind of smelled like.. I don’t want to say “ass”, but ass? Maybe backed up sewers? The building showed some water penetration issues so it was probably black mold or something. The food was pretty good though. I had 2 beef quesadillas and Plonker had a steak fajita with peppers. We would burp of lunch for hours afterwards.
We stopped at a Farm Market on the outskirts of Vermilion because Plonker ran out of water. I didn’t go in mainly because my bike was so back heavy it was a pain to get back on it whenever I got off. Plonker and the cashier got to talking and she said that she rides 100 miles on holidays in one trip. When relayed to me I said, “yeah, we could do that.. around here. We did 80 in one day with huge hills, in the rain. We could definitely do 100 on relatively flat ground.”
Going through downtown Vermilion we started seeing signs about the road being closed in 6 miles, local traffic only. We didn’t see any road work actually being done so we pressed on. Also, we didn’t really want to add a ton of miles. Also it gets more hilly the further you get from the coast. Onward, Buttercup!
After passing some cottages, where one lady literally yelled to me asking if I needed a place to stay for the night (which I’m really hoping meant a cottage, although the main sign said “no vacancy”) we came to the end of the line. The road was indeed closed. And gone. No passing that. DETOUR!
We backtracked to the previous road (where Plonker had called me from (since I was far enough ahead of him) and asked if we needed to take the detour. I said I wasn’t sure and I was checking it out. Indeed we did. Indeed we did.
The detour wasn’t too bad. Straight south, straight west, straight northwest. It was noticeably more hilly than the road we were supposed to be on. I’m guessing it added a couple or few miles to the trip. It took us to Huron.
Next up after Huron would be the hotel. I changed the route a little back in Lakewood, it would have cut off some distance, but with the detour it was probably a wash.
One the final road to the hotel Plonker had a bee get lodged in his helmet. I just find that funny.
Finally we reached the hotel. It was around 5:30. About 5.5 hours on the road. A little longer than the 4 hours we figured on, but we also some for the greasy, but tasty Mexican. So not too bad, and a whole lot better than day 1.
With thousands of calories burnt again we could gorge ourselves with food! That’s the entire point of riding! For months we envisioned riding in to Sandusky and gorging on everything. Wings! Pizza! Drinks!
We went to the restaurant right across from the hotel. We got Cheese and Bacon filled Tater Tots and the Pig Pig Cow Burger, which was a burger topped with bacon, pulled pork, and cheddar. Very, very good. Plonker didn’t finish one tot (I ate it) and left a bite of burger. I had a couple adult beverages and he had one. Not exactly the party we had in Augusta (post to come at a later date).
We both had to be way under calories for the day again. I’m still not really that hungry this morning. Our plan for the day was to to the King Kong Challenge at Chet and Matt’s Pizza, which under normal circumstances I’m positive we could complete. However, this heavy riding has limited our appetites, much to my dismay. I wanted to cram stupid amounts of food into my gullet! Perhaps next time, when we drive to Sandusky, with full appetite intact. We will be on the wall of fame! Or web page, if they update it past 2011.
Whatever. Bragging rights, like the rest of this trip.
