Day One in the Books

I wanted to take a minute to answer one of the questions people have asked me. “When you’re riding your bike for 5, 6, or 7 hours, what do you do?”

This is different for each and every person. Many enjoy the camaraderie of groups. There are also some aerodynamic benefits of group riding if done properly (read up on pacelines if you want). I personally enjoy the solitude of riding by myself.

Alone with my thoughts for that long? Yes actually. After a few minutes I fall into a zone of paying attention to where I am, my next waypoint, are there any potholes, woodchucks, or a rogue aardvark to beware of. And taking in the surroundings. New York State has some beautiful places, and it is a unique experience to see them by bike.

Below is a picture of my “office” for the week. Bike bell on the left, headlight on the right, and my GPS right smack in the middle. That’s the little guy that tells me where I am (and tells YOU where I am)

Next question of the day… How do I do laundry? Yes, we all do laundry.
Notably, the jersey we wore on the first day of our journey is the same one we wear on the seventh day as we venture into Niagara Falls. It’s a bit different from a pair of socks that we might consider wearing for a second day. No chance with this. In order to wash our clothes, we resort to utilizing the shower and conveniently find plenty of space to dry them. Score one for blazing ☀️!

And the last one for today… How do you take a shower? I promise you it’s NOT glamorous. The shower truck follows us from place to place.

Day one is coming to a close. A bit over 62 miles (or 100km if you’re one of those metric weirdos).It’s easy to underestimate the trip since it’s the shortest leg, but it requires serious effort. I arrived relatively unharmed a few hours ago, but others are still arriving. Some are hot shots that figured they could skip a water stop and wound up regretting it, and others are people that genuinely struggled. But, despite being exhausted and sunburned, they still made it, motivated by the one cause that unites every one of us on this journey.