Today’s ride was a fairly quick one, giving us more time to enjoy our day in York! After a late start to the day, we experienced some minor rolling hills and a gradual incline, which wasn’t anything we weren’t used to. Once we arrived in York, we had a great time visiting a marble museum, an antique store, and the grocery store for root beer!
Quote of the Day
“If it’s evenly coated in rust, it’s okay” - Harbin (talking about his bike, Surly)
“You guys know Costco?” - Veronica
RIDE OVERVIEW
Mileage: 54.2 Miles
Elevation: 1,381 ft.
Points of Interest: Neutral Grounds Coffee Shop, Sinclair Gas Station (dinos!), Grand Central Foods, Lee’s Legendary Marbles & Collectibles
Ride Dedication: Robert (Bob) and Ann Snider
Tales of the Trail
We all woke up at our usual time of 5:45 am, feeling well-rested from the previous rest day. We rolled out later than usual due to rain in the morning, but the early morning sky greeted us with a beautiful sunrise and rainbow! We eventually rolled out around 8 am, and some of the groups immediately found coffee, while others got a head start. The morning started out with low-grade hills, which were fairly easy compared to some other days of the ride. Our first rest stop of the morning was at Neutral Grounds Coffee Shop, which was a relaxing place to get some coffee and snacks before getting back on the road. The rest of the ride was very flat, with a very low grade incline, making it much easier to get through the day. We had our lunch stop at Sinclair’s Gas Station, which was dinosaur-themed and even had a mini dinosaur statue, which our team had a great time taking pictures on! Luckily, we only had 15 miles left of the ride, giving us time to enjoy the rest of the day.
We got to the stayover around 1:30 PM, and everyone got to unpacking and taking showers. Some people went to the community center to shower, while a group of us went to buy all kinds of root beer from the grocery store! A bit later, a group visited the marble museum and had a great time learning about this niche interest. Once everyone got back to their stayover, we were provided some great sandwiches by the church. We were also challenged to find cool objects on the side of the road this morning, and every group took the time to share a story surrounding their discovered object. After dinner, we spent the rest of the night watching Interstellar and taste testing the root beer we bought earlier in the day. Unfortunately, the movie was very long, and we had to end it early so everyone could rest up for the next day. No worries – we’ll finish it eventually!
Thank you, Emmanuel Lutheran Church, for giving us a place to sleep and providing us with a great meal!
Cyclist’s Corner
Today’s Rider: Matt Guibord
How are you feeling today?
I'm feeling good, we had a short day. It started raining when we started, it was a longer first stretch, but we got to have coffee. We stayed a little bit longer at the coffee shop, which was nice and relaxing. We told the coffee shop owner and some guests about what we were doing, they were very supportive. Then the longer first stretch made the last two stretches kind of shorter, 12 miles and 16 miles, those were very nice because it wasn't too hot and the road was nice. It was very straight and flat, but it was nice and relaxing. It's nice to be back at the stay over quickly. We got here around 2: 30 and so we've been able to rest since then.
Do you have any go-to gas station/rest stop snacks?
For gas station snacks, if they're selling a lunch like thing, not just snacks, but like a sandwich or things like that, then I to go for those for rest stop snacks. I really just try to get as much protein in as possible. I like pairing a protein heavy, like granola bar or something, with maybe something sweeter or savory to keep me motivated and keep the spirits high.
What is your rest stop routine?
My rest stop routine is, I start a timer at the beginning of almost every single rest stop, even though I normally don't tell people, because when it hits 15 minutes, I don't want to leave, and so I'm not gonna kick people out if I don't wanna leave. So I normally just keep that, but I do set timers, and then I grab snacks, and I'm basically just eating snacks all the way until I'm almost ready to go, and then with a few minutes left, I fill my water bottles. I don't have that much sunscreen to put on, just because I like the arm sleeves and leg sleeves, and really the only things that are showing are the tops of my hands and my cheeks. So I'll sunscreen those.
How do you stay motivated on long/tough days on the bike?
I think the best is to break it into bite sized chunks. I mean, this entire trip, it's easy to just say, every day is the bite sized chunk, but I don't think that a day is small enough. So maybe like, rest stop, or, every 20 miles, every 10 miles, and you really just have to block the rest of the day out of your brain. You just have to focus on the moment, on the present. Honestly, just looking around, because it's very easy to just kind of put your head down and just like, keep biking and say, “oh, my legs hurt. This is painful.” But then you start looking around, enjoying the scenery, and you start talking to people, and it makes the time go by much faster, and you enjoy it more.
For the remaining portion of the ride, where are you looking forward to visiting the most?
I’m looking forward to basically everything past Boulder because that's when we start doing elevation again, and mountains and stuff. I really enjoy that, and just the scenery, I think it’s going to get a little better than the flat cornfields of the Midwest. I'm also excited for the dry weather, because the humidity kind of sucks. It makes everything feel so much hotter than it actually is, so things being dry will be nice, and with good views, lots of climbing, but I don't really mind the climbing.
Anything else you want to talk about?
Shout out to all the stayovers who have helped us. They've been so generous so far, and everyone's been very appreciative and grateful for everything.