After an incredibly riveting and rainy first day, the team was ready to conquer whatever day 2 had to throw at us. Which happened to be, you guessed it, more rain. This however, did not make us skip a beat as we all were very excited to explore all the views that New Jersey and Pennyslyvania had to offer.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 52.4 miles
Elevation: 3,217
Points of Interest: Cherryville Pizza, Black bear encounter, Pennsylvania and New Jersey border
Tales of the trail
The team got an early start to our morning today as we all woke up bright and early at 5:15 am. The team was a little groggy waking up so early after the previous day’s biking. This feeling was soon replaced with joy as the church we stayed at provided us with a breakfast consisting of: egg casserole, watermelon, bananas, and much more food than you could ever ask for. After packing all of our gear we donned our rain jackets once more and rolled out at a prompt 6:50 am to start day 2. As Cole is driving the van today I, Parker, will be recounting most of the ride:
Despite a rainy start there were many other elements to today’s route that definitely made it worth it. The rolling hills in New Jersey were mostly new sights to us, which were mostly received as a positive change compared to our usual flat routes in Illinois. A personal favorite was an 8% downhill about a mile or two long that was quite exhilarating to get up to high speeds. However, even some things so simple as trees, nature, and bridges lining the route is a welcome difference to all of our training routes in the spring on long country roads. Evidently it must have been a nice day outside as some wildlife even decided to show up during our ride. One group even encountered a black bear in the middle of the road, which I believe was documented on one of their go-pro. (Which will definitely be fun to look back at the footage).
We love a good bike path!
Further into the ride we crossed from New Jersey into Pennsylvania across a very scenic bridge. (which most everyone made sure to stop and take a picture) Pennsylvania officially marks the third state of our ride only two days in! After our first rest stop the team was still feeling energized as we heard the news that the sun was going to come out soon. The next stretch was full of many hills that really tested our climbing abilities, but we persevered. It was just soon after we crested a steep hill that during our descent we could see the van in the distance marking our second rest stop. The van in the distance is like our statue of liberty. At this point the team was definitely in need of fueling. Some chose to have the classic PB&J, while others decided to grab a slice of pizza at Cherryville Pizza which was very scrumptious and warm.
Double Decker PB&J!
Our group then tackled the rest of the ride with ease. The team rolled into Trinity Lutheran Church in Lehighton Pennsylvania where we were greeted by a 2012 Alum of Illini4000 who recounted on her past ride, and even provided us with lots of snacks! I thought it was interesting how she told me that the first week of her ride was also the hardest part, and also how so many things are very similar to what they did 14 years ago. Also, a wonderful group of people from the church provided us with a very filling dinner of pasta, lots of fruit, a new item the team had never heard of before called jigglers (basically just JELLO in the shape of an egg), and we even got ice cream for dessert.
We were able to hear some amazing stories from a former rider and 2012 Alumni
After everyone was fed the whole team got a chance to interview Julie at the Trinity Lutheran Church who got to share with us her unique story with cancer. A story Julie told that stuck with me was how when she got diagnosed and during her treatments that she was amidst raising a service dog. During the portrait she mentioned that it's very important to focus on something besides cancer and to care about someone else. For her that was caring for and raising the service dog.
With quite a busy day coming to an end the team just had a few important tasks left in the night. One of these was doing laundry in the basement at the church. (which after all the rain the team desperately needed) The other, but more fun necessary task especially after the rain, was having a full team bike cleaning party. For a lot of the team that hadn’t done bike maintenance before, it was very fun to learn how to degrease and clean their chains and cassettes. Although before we all went to bed a few of us got a little wet as some people got a little spray happy while using the hose to rinse off our bikes. All in all it was a great day and the team was glad to get to bed after a very busy, yet fulfilling day.
Who knew we could fit so many clothes in such seemingly small backpacks
Cyclists’ Corner
Rider: Anthony Salemi
How are you feeling today? Physically? Mentally?
Physically, I'm tired. It's hard to get a lot of sleep, you know, because we get back late and then it's like a rush to get to bed and then it's a rush in the morning and there's not enough time in between.
Yeah, but mentally I feel good because tomorrow it's going to be like low of 54 and a high of 75 or something and no rain! Compared to the last two days that's like amazing and it's going to be great tomorrow, it's going to be awesome!
What was your favorite part of today's ride?
When the rain stopped and the sun came out… and I could take off my rain jacket. When I started sweating I was like, this is good. Instead of rain dripping on my face, you know?
What motivated you to join Illini4000?
I learned about the club because I biked in UIUC and you of course hear about this crazy ride that they do across the country. Because I love biking so much, I wanted to join and then I, you know, learned about everything else that's actually involved other than biking. It's a great cause to do all that and fundraising. We just did a portrait and it's really amazing to hear all these different stories. She was talking about the puppy and how her raising her puppy got her through cancer. And I'm like, wow, that's such a great way to look at that. And that was nice.
Before joining Illini4000 how much bike training had you done, if any, and did you have any other athletic background that you feel prepared you for this ride?
I've done a lot of biking before this. I started biking when I came to college. I just finished my junior year, so I'll be a senior in the Fall. I started in the Fall of my freshman year. So in the Fall, I'll be biking for about three years. Of course, I learned how to bike when I was a kid, but then started biking, all the time in college. Before that I swam. I think in many ways, it's kind of similar because I would, in high school, do swimming at 5am for two hours, six days a week. Except for Saturdays, I think we started at… it was 9am on Saturday. So that was nice. But that's kind of similar to Illini 4000 in that you wake up really early and then do a bunch of exercise.
What is your bike's name/model?
I have a 2017 GT Grade Carbon. That's the model. It doesn’t have a name.
What are you most nervous/excited about?
I'm nervous most about this week because we were talking to the alum who came here (the stayover) earlier. She said that the first week was the hardest and I'm like, we're only two days in! I think it's only going to get a lot harder from here and then maybe it gets easier as you, you know, kind of get used to it. That's what I'm most nervous about.
I'm worried about the Rockies, you know, but once we get there, I think we're going to be like, “Oh, this is nothing,” you know? At least, that's kind of like what Andres and Kev were saying. It's just another hill.
What I'm most excited about is the Rockies because I've never been out West. The farthest West I've been is Champaign itself. (Unless you maybe count Houston. If that's more West, I'm not sure where that lies on the map.) But that's not really West. So I'm really excited to go out West and San Francisco is going to be awesome and seeing the mountains! It's going to be awesome because they're so much more than the Appalachian.
Anything else you would like to talk about? How about do you like sprinkles? Or are you opposed to sprinkles?
Context dependence.
I'm not inherently for or against. I think it's, in some ways it's added like nothingness, you know? It's because it doesn't put it in, in other ways, it kind of adds like an extra texture to ice cream or something. I think… I don’t know. I can't answer that question.
One more bonus question: Do you like crunchy peanut butter or…
Smooth. Creamy peanut butter. Smooth peanut butter.
I was heartbroken when we bought crunchy and then we only had crunchy. That was very saddening.
Yeah. I like the smooth.