Day 42 -- Wooster, OH to Youngstown, OH

Miles: 100.76
Total Miles: 3183.55
Time: 6:34
Average Speed: 15.3 mph
Max Speed: 40.5 mph
Flats Today: 0
Total Flats: 14
Elevation Gain: 4127 ft
Weather: Low wind around 90 degrees and humid
Today was another day of rolling hills, corn, beans, and heat. Also, there was another element that was added for us to complain about... rough roads. The roads on the second half of the day were really bad, so it made our 3rd century in a row a fairly tough one. They need some better civil engineers around here... I bet those bad roads were designed by Choice Two Engineering. Anyway, besides the rough roads and heat, it was a very nice day filled with a bunch of great "Ohio" scenery. I think it was probably some of the best scenery that Ohio can offer. We woke up at 6:00, ate breakfast at 6:30, loaded at 7:30, then began the day. It was very nice for the first hour because it wasn't hot out yet, but when the first hour passed, we could feel the heat. The roads that we rode on today seemed to be very shaded from trees and such, so it wasn't near as hot as the last 2 days, but I could definitely feel the heat. Anyway, we rode in a pace line behind big John all the way to the first sag stop, so we were blocked from the wind very well... It was almost like we were getting sucked in behind him. Just before the sag stop, we came up to the Chapel Hill Retirement Community. Fran is from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, so we had to get a picture of him by the retirement sign... I don't think he thought it was as funny as we did.

When we got to the first sag stop, Brian and Kim Leggett were there waiting for us. We spent a longer time than we usually do at the sag stops, so like always, we had to catch back up to people who didn't stay long. It was very nice for them to come out today and see us... I'm surprised that they weren't tired of us after yesterday. There were riders that asked them if they were our friends and Brian just replied we know them and they laughed and said we understand. I didn't get it. Also at that sag stop was a bunch of Larry Johnson's cycling buddies. He was the happiest man in the world at that sag stop. Anyway, we eventually said good bye to Brian and Kim, and we continued on our way. We rode along some rolling hills, passed a few people, then caught up to Joy and Judy. There wasn't much between the 2 sag stops today, so we just took it easy, but tried not to go too slow for Wade. We arrived at the sag stop, had our fill, then headed out again.

Only about a mile past the second sag stop we came upon some construction, so we had to walk about 2 tenths of a mile to get through the dirt and gravel. It was very interesting because there was a house in the middle of the construction that about a 10 foot drop off from their driveway to the street. The picture doesn't do it justice, the slope was a 1:1 slope, it was a drop off. I don't know how that construction will work out, but I hope those people didn't leave their car in the garage before the construction started. After we got through the dirt and gravel, we rode through more rolling hills all the way into Youngstown. It flattened out a little bit from what it was like in Wooster, but those hills seem bigger every mile during your 3rd century in a row... at least we get to make it 4 in a row tomorrow!!! Anyway, when we got into Youngstown, we took a bike path until we were about a half of a mile away from our hotel. For some reason, our route told us to go away from our hotel and go way out of our way. Since we knew we wanted to complete 100 miles today, we went ahead and took the long route. Some riders took the short cut, but we were too tough, or maybe too stupid, to take the short cut. The good part was that the long way led us to some ice cream, so we of coursed stopped and had an ice cream cone. After the ice cream, we finished up the ride to the hotel.

When we were just about to the hotel parking lot, we kept riding and continued until we found the short cut. We took the short cut backwards and got onto the bike path to get some extra miles. Since we were at about 92 miles and we knew that going to church would add about 5 miles, we road our extra 3 miles and went back to the hotel. Once we were at the hotel, we swam, took showers, then went to church. It was a nice mass, and we even made it back in time for dinner. By the way, the ride to and from church put us over our century mark, so we now have 3 down and 1 more to go. In other news, I got an email again a few days ago, but don't worry it's not those crazy Choice One people again. Ken, the guy that toured us around in San Francisco, sent us some pictures of what the Golden Gate Bridge would have looked like if it hadn't been so foggy the 3 times we went to try to take pictures by it. Anyway, thanks to Ken, we now have pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. His photography was a little better when we weren't there, or maybe he just didn't have us hassling him.