Well I did it. I made the first of my “long” bike trips. Today I rode from home to my dad’s store in Sandy Creek, 60.4 miles. Very eager, I awoke at 5:00 a.m. and then hit the road at 5:34 a.m., right at sunrise. The temperature was about 55 degrees when I left. It was beautiful, in that there was a lot of wildlife running around, the birds were singing beautifully, and I was headed right into the rising sun. I loved it.
I had planned on reaching Camden at about 9:00 a.m., but I surprisingly got there by 7:30 a.m. So I sat in the park in the center of town, ate one of my packed apples and relaxed a bit before hitting the road.
All in all, I had planned on 6 1/2 hours for the trip. I wasn’t sure of the distance, nor was I sure of my average speed, since this was my first long ride. Turns out I was averaging 14.25 MPH, including breaks, so I made it up there at 10:20.
Earl met me about 3/4 of the way in the truck to make sure I was o.k., and then he kind of met up with me from time to time to make sure I was doing o.k., but not to bee too intrusive.
After the ride, we had a nice lunch with my dad, my uncle and my aunt. It was a nice visit. Earl drove us home, bike in the back of the truck as I napped. We relaxed a bit here at the house and then went to Syracuse for supper. We ended up going to Spaghetti Warehouse on Clinton St. Always good food. I was a bit surprised to find the restaurant only half full at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday; usually there’s a long wait on Saturday nights! Maybe everyone was barbecuing or something.
We were then going to see “Bourne Identity” at the movies, but the movie didn’t start until 10:00, and it was only 8:00 when we got there so we decided to skip the movie and took a leisurely ride home along Oneida Lake on Route 31. Which made me decide on my next long ride, which I hope to do in July. I want to ride about 100 miles, along NY 31 to Rochester. I’ll do it early in the morning again so the summer heat doesn’t kill me and burn me to a crisp. Route 31 is relatively flat, since it goes along the Erie Canal. In fact, I’ll probably jump onto the Canal Trail whenever I get the chance. It’s the next step in my continued biking progress.
Earl bought me my birthday present early on Friday night – a new Palm m515. I LOVE IT! It was on sale at OfficeMax, so he wanted to get it for me while we could save a little money at the same time. I transferred all of my stuff off my old Palm V and gave it to him. I think he’s going to find it very helpful with his commuting between here and Buffalo; and I’m already putting much more stuff in my new Palm.
My legs are surprisingly not as sore as I thought they would be after the trip. I think I’ll sleep good tonight! 🙂
