I wish I could say that 115 miles flew by but it surely did not. You say 115 miles? I thought it was 113?? One of the hard truths I have learned is that the mileage is almost always longer than the official total. When the route sheet is being made, the person riding (or driving) the route resets their odometer at every turn. Each time this is done they lose a few hundredths of a mile. Ergo, we gain mileage in tiny amounts at every turn. Some rides early in the trip were all on one road-- no turns. Yesterday we had 28 turns in the route and gained at every one of them.
An idiosyncrasy of the area yesterday-- we rode on "14 Mile Road", then "12 Mile Road", then "19 Mile Road", then another "14 Mile Road". All different roads in different towns. All seemed long and tedious. The saving grace of the ride is that we had ice cream in Lake Isabella at mile 98. Then, possibly seeing that I was nearing the end of my rope, a very nice rider named Mark rode the last miles to the motel with me and kept me entertained with slightly risque jokes.
I have been having problems with my hands so bought new gloves in Ludington-- these served only to make matters much worse. The long ride together with the time change (yes! we are now back in Eastern time), the heat and the gloves reduced me to a quivering pulp. We had yet another dreadful buffet dinner (bad food and plenty of it!) and I was curled up in bed with ice on my hands at 6:15. I struggled to stay awake and lasted 15 minutes, then slept for the next 12 hours! I think the accumulated wear and tear is getting to me. This morning other people have had to do the following things for me-- open a bottle of juice, peel a banana and tear open a sugar packet. There is no strength left in my fingers-- I can still (barely) initial by my name (we have to do it at most meals and at all SAG stops) but I cannot write my full name at all. As John said a few days ago "this incessant bicycling has to stop". Fortunately I can use the keyboard and shift the bike.
On the bright side: I have done the last of seven 100+ mile rides and don't expect ever to do another. The longest ride we have left is officially 93 miles.
I am getting seriously concerned about how long I can go on like this. I had a lot of pain in my right hand last night-- enough to trouble my sleep-- had to get up and ice it. We are thinking about getting ergonomic handle bars when we get to Niagara. Seems absurd to have to give up with less than 900 miles to go-- or whatever it is.
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