XC Day 11 - Rest Day in Cazenovia NY
Today is my first rest day of the trip, but the fourth and last rest day for everyone else. On the map above, you can see the portion of the country I have ridden, from Madison WI to Cazenovia NY. By showing the entire US, it also makes it clear how much farther my fellow riders have travelled, starting on the coast west of Portland OR. Since arriving in Madison, I have biked 941 miles including the rides around Madison. We have just 435 miles still to bike over the next 5 days to get to Portland ME.
I am really appreciating taking a day off the bike since my legs are quite fatigued. After breakfast, I went back to my room and napped for another hour and a half. That was terrific. Next, the iconic chore of rest days, laundry, beckoned. The hotel only has a single washer and dryer available, so many of my fellow riders chose, like me, to walk the 3/4 of a mile to the laundromat in town rather than wait in line to do our laundry at the hotel.
After returning from the laundry, I made up kit bags for the next 5 days. Each kit bag is a gallon zip lock bag containing a riding bib, shirt, socks, gloves, and headband. This means that in the morning, I do not need to think but can just grab a bag to get dressed for the day. I have a separate zip locked bags, all labeled, with cool weather gear, rain gear, and cold weather gear. Depending on the day’s forecast, I may grab some items out of these for the day’s ride.
The forecast for the remaining 5 days of riding is for unseasonably warm weather with high temperatures in the 70s potentially hitting 80 with sunny or partially sunny skies. I have been fortunate with the weather on this trip. We have only had two days with extremely light rain and no really cold days. Had we gotten the rain New York City got yesterday, the ride would have been extremely hard.
My fellow riders are really feeling the end of the trip coming upon them. Having ridden about 3300 miles over the past 41 days, the remaining 5 days and 435 miles feels quite short, less than half of what we just rode from Madison WI to here. Chatting with my friends, they have very mixed feelings about the approaching end to the trip. There is both the desire to get back home and sadness about this epic adventure ending. The shared experience of biking across the country binds the group together in a way that will be lost when the group scatters in all directions next weekend.
I have the somewhat unique position of both being part of and separate from the group as a whole. It has been great meeting the other riders and starting to get to know them. They have been tremendously welcoming, but I also don’t share so many of their memories of the trip since I was not there. Had I not known Paula, Jesse, and Ruth already, joining might have felt more challenging. However, having ridden the 2019 trip and knowing them, I was able to slip into the rhythm of the trip very easily.
For me, this trip has been a wonderful escape from the day to day stresses of the past year. There is a simplicity to life on the trip which I find very restorative. As I explained to Jesse and Ruth when encouraging them to sign up for this cross country endeavor, on the trip, your primary job is to eat, bike, and sleep. If you love cycling the way we do, it is a great job to have. With all the complexity of most of our everyday lives, many of us find a level of peace and psychological restoration from the simplicity and routine of this trip. I am certainly looking forward to seeing Kate next weekend, but part of me wishes that we were at the first rest day in Missoula MT and that I had 36 days to go. Undoubtedly, this emotion is a major reason why I have signed up to do the full trip next year.
Signing off for tonight with a photo of the barn across from our hotel.