Day 43 – Grits for lunch.

Last night we had quite the weather in our tent as we fell asleep to a nice mist on our faces as it rained. This morning was a wet, mildewy morning that we started off by singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Floyd surprised us with a strong verse even, and it was a nice silver lining to the morning. The first thirty miles went by in more or less of a blur, with scattered sprinkles and some small climbs. As we were coming down the hill for the first waterstop, Sean got a flat where he also went through a second tube when it was punctured by the tire iron. I’d never actually seen that happen, but now I know why I’ve always been warned about it.

After a little break at Mark’s stop we embarked on the bike path that would take us all of the fifty miles into camp for the night. I quickly discovered that there are a couple of definitions of what a bike path is, because it certainly was not the paved, smooth, black path that I am used to. Instead it was packed cinder, dirt, mud, and sand, which occasionally became as narrow as a footpath. It wound us through parks and woods alongside a river that we occasionally got peaks of. And then it rained. Myself and my bike were just caked with grit. Without a fender or rack on the back, I had one impressive streak running from where my shorts hit the saddle all the way up to the tip-top of my helmet of grit, sand, and dirt. I was the best of the worst, and had eight million pictures taken of me before I could take my helmet off. Somehow, miraculously we seemed to be the only ones who hit the rain and mud.

The checkpoint today that we came to today was along the bike path today was hosted by a former big rider named Fred and his wife Roseanne, and it was so, so sweet. They had birch beer, sandwiches, chips, fruit, cheese, and lots of pies for us. Thank goodness because we were starving and so thankful to get the nourishment.

We continued on to finish the bike path, went over some really fun bridges high over the river, and Ben conveniently got a flat at one of the best views of the river that we’d had so far. Camp is at a state park campground tonight, and unfortunately we weren’t able to find a laundromat open late enough for us to get the mildew out of our wet clothes (which is now mission number one when we get into camp tomorrow). We’re camped next to a dam, and we spent a lot of time just sitting by the water tonight.