I’m back to work today, but what about yesterday?
Kent to Hermitage. What can I say? Do people ever look forward to going home after vacation? Even after a vacation where you bike over 678 miles? They do? oh..
We weren’t looking forward to heading home, partly due to never wanting to actually be home, but also our legs were no longer wanting to function properly, especially uphills. The elevation chart was showing a lot of climbs and that seemed like it was going to be painful. I looked into alternate routes than the planned on, and did indeed settle on the route we last took on Bike Trip 3.0, since we had already rode it once before and it was about a mile shorter than the planned route.
The first 20 miles was partially on trail then road, that, while had some climbs was not as completely painful as the last few days had been. We wound up in the Village of Windham about that point, and the weather said it was going to rain soon, so we went to Circle K and hung out under the awning of some abandoned stores. There was also a laundromat that looked abandoned; It wasn’t, as evidenced by the flicking LED lights.
We stayed under the awning, first waiting for the rain, and then waiting for the rain to stop. We had a few interesting characters talk to us for a while, some could argue for too long of a while. I can say I was pretty happy when the rain finally did let up so we could get back on the road.
The next 10 miles when very smoothly. We were 30 in, pretty close to home, yet still somehow had 28 to got. And the full 28 miles it took. The climbs we’ve rode a million times weren’t as painful as we envisioned (though not exactly delightful). We made it to Plonker’s around 6:30 or 7:00 or so.
I was in bed by 10 accomplishing nothing beforehand that I needed to catch up from my 2 week absence. My dehumidifier also sounds like it’s about to die, and my house feels like garbage after living in hotels for so long.
So will we ever do a trip like this again? Probably not. At least not for a few years, and at a time where restaurants are running on normal schedules with waitstaff that’s not trying to rush you out the door. I’m thinking Bike Trip 5.0 would be a lot like 3.0 in that each way would be 3 days, a few days in a city (or few days in multiple cities depending on destinations) and 3 days back. Just not down through Seville, then the long way to Kent. We do learn a few things from these trips.
Today my legs aren’t too bad. I’m a little slow on stairs but otherwise able to walk. I was a little surprised to see that after all the riding I actually gained about 10 pounds. Is it muscle? Swelling? The fact that we gorged ourselves for half the trip on food and drink? The world may never know. I do know that I do enjoy the reward of a good steak after a long bike ride.
