Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Day 46 - Heading Back to Aurora

After a wonderful evening at Dan and Connie's B&B we woke up to soaking wet bike gear in the bed of the truck.  We didn't feel the need to bring everything in last night but also didn't plan on a blanket of dew dropping like Niagara Falls on our stuff.  We have a new step in our routine this morning and that is using the hair dryer to dry our stuff.  Fortunately we had another round of Connie's muffins to lift our spirits.  

We loaded all of our gear (some f it still damp) into the truck for what we hope will be the last time and headed back to Trusty's, not for another Zombie Dust, but because that's where we left off yesterday.  We expected to (and did!) put in 72 miles to Syracuse today which will got us within 80 miles of our end goal of Defiance OH.  The day was fantastic.  Vacant country road after vacant country road.  Casey and Kyle are phenomenal route planners.  I think I will put them on retainer to text me the next days route whenever I need help (which will bed everyday) the rest of the trip.  We were smoking on the adrenaline that we may get good news about RV later today averaging over 17 mph for the route.  I need to make up excuses to get these guys to slow down.  "hey up there, I need to stop for a second and take a picture of this wire fence!"


Not having the RV has turned this adventure into a long Hood to Coast activity but instead of running with 8 people we are biking with 4.  The truck has been our home on the road.  Gear thrown all over the place, Clif bars, water bottles and stinky bodies.  Fortunately, we stop at a hotel every night to take care of the stinky body aspect.  

Once the ride was complete we loaded everything back up and head back to Aurora (I can not believe we are going back there!)  Siri's route has us within 15 minutes of South Bend so we decided on a little detour to see Notre Dame University.  We grabbed some sandwiches at Penn Station Eastern Subs and sat near the "Golden Dome" building for a picnic.  The city of South Bend was a little underwhelming, but I was impressed with the little bit we saw of the campus and sport facilities.  It was beautiful.    

As we approached town, I got a call from Jeff, the maintenance foreman at the shop (I think Cary is tired of me), and he informed us that the RV will not be completed until tomorrow morning.  Ugh! but not a total surprise.  "Hello Lexi? We need a room for one more night!"  We walked into the room and realized we were all still full from our sandwiches, the Olympics were not on yet and we didn't feel like exploring Aurora (been there, done that).  Next thing you know, Kyle has the bright idea to play quarters.  Yes, you read that correctly, play quarters.....the drinking game.  Not sure where that came from but Casey, Cheryl and I look at each other and figure that sounds good, let's go for it.  I hadn't played in probably 30 years but I held my own.  We only had a few cans of CL so it didn't get too out of control.  

A little Thai for dinner, watched the Olympics and time for bed.  It almost felt like Christmas Eve as we get the RV tomorrow!


Until then....

4 comments:

  1. It's been awhile since you have had to write about gravel roads, roads under construction, getting lost, narrow shoulders, no shoulders, wind, or rumble strips. Yippee, another great day of biking. Damn RV repair. Good luck for tomorrow morning.

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    1. The logistics with the RV issue has been a pain but the riding has been the best all trip. Really good!

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    2. Hey John, doing a test to see if this reply shows up. Not sure why my replies are intermittent.

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  2. You were in a Aurora n didn't go play street hockey with Wayne n Garth? Sad! Party on Winklers! Excellent!!!

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