Ornoth

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Okay, we are in Barnstable and it's something like ten minutes of seven.

I hooked up with Jay, as he had passed me, but I caught up with him on the rollers as he'd stopped to visit one of the medical trucks: nothing major.

It's not really warm, but it's incredibly humid. The water is just pouring off me in streams, which is not typical: I'm not someone who sweats very much. It's just ridiculously humid. The good news is that the sun is still down, or buried behind this fog bank we're in, so no major issues as far as sun exposure goes! Maybe that will change over the course of the day.

We're kind of in the middle of the pack. On Sunday there's no organized start, so people start whenever, so we're in the middle of the pack, but that doesn't matter as much today. It's important on Saturday, so I can get in get an early massage and shower. But on Sunday it's more laid back, and there isn't any real need to get to Provincetown early.

I'm kind of just enjoying the ride. The legs are ultimately pretty good a little weak-achey, but we'll ride into that, and it's supposed to be, after 140 miles! Doing pretty well and just hanging out with Jay, this probably being our last ride together. So I'm just enjoying the ride and the fact that I've broken all expectations as far as fundraising this year, which is a testment to you guys.

That's it, gonna try and get some water and hit the road and see how much more sweat I can generate! The next stop is in Brewster, which'll be maybe an hour, maybe a little more than an hour, which puts us around 8:00 or 8:15.

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Well it's 7:40, so I've been here in the Barnstable stop for probably 45 minutes or so, but a miracle has in fact happened, and the mechanic here had Mavic non-drive-side spokes.

So I now have a new spoke; god only knows whether it will last another 60-, 70-odd miles, but in theory the rear wheel problem is solved. I still have a few bottom bracket issues, but it's not bugging me too much today.

So I actually am... This water stop has pretty much cleared out, so I'm completely behind everybody. There's only a few riders with me at this point.

But just passed the place where I wiped out, back -- I think it was the 2003 ride -- crashed out of the ride. Passed it safely, of course.

And soon I'll be going through Dennis, which is the location of the Cape Playhouse, which is the oldest summer theater in the US, and actually the place where Bette Davis was discovered.

So onward, and gonna try and push along to try and catch up with the rest of the group, just because I'm so far behind. So I won't spend more time talking. But happy so far. We'll see how this goes on the next segment.

The following is a transcription of a phone post that originally appeared in my main journal, here.

Hello, it is 7:19 so that was a quick leg. We are now at a total of 136 miles and it is 69 degrees out; so it actually was down to 64 this morning. But I am now at the Barnstable water stop, which is just after where I crashed out back in the 2003 ride. And met up with Charlie and his buddies and have been having a fairly relaxing warm-up for the first 15 or 20 miles of the ride so far. Looks like it's gonna start warming up pretty fast, so gonna go get some ice and some Gatorade and hit the road again. But we're now firmly on the cape, having started going over the crazy sand dunes and up and down the little hills. but they're not bad because you can just shoot 'em. You can get enough speed on the downhill to cover the uphill, and do it again and again and again. I think that's it for here. I'm gonna go grab some food while I can, and hit the road again. Next stop will be from Brewstah, at the state park there, which is before the first portion of our ride that hits the Cape Cod Rail Trail, as opposed to the Cape Cod Canal rail trail that we were on earlier, or actually last night. That was actually a good ride; going up the canal path in the evening is very beautiful, and going over the Bourne bridge is just crazy; it's a very high bridge. But that's it; I'll talk to you again soon.