I woke up in the hotel I was staying at, and ate a large breakfast. I was lazy, and only got out of the door at 9:00am. Something in me gave me enormous amounts of energy to do 30km in one shot without stopping for breaks. I bet it was the breakfast. The rest of the day essentially followed that pattern of long stretches of cycling with few breaks. It was me, my bike, and the 31 highway, and the entire discography of Scissor Sisters played through twice.
I got into a routine of stopping every few hours to reapply sunscreen, and at some points I stopped counting miles, but started counting time. It's been days since I could feel any pain in my legs, and they are now used to the long rides, at least after biking for 100m or so. At this point, it's almost as if I'm driving! I even get that weird tunnel vision effect when you look at the road for too long and then look away. It's as if immobile things are moving on their own every time I take a break.
I also replaced my tires because one of them started bulging out in a way that worried me. I don't know, maybe I worry too much for the bike, and I should just let flats happen instead of trying to prevent them. I mean, I know how to repair them when they come anyway...
I find it hard to get back to biking after taking breaks for the same reason it's hard to get back to studying or driving after a rest area. The only difference is that I set my goal at 70km a day, and that I usually meet this goal before lunchtime, meaning that taking long breaks doesn't cost me anything.
There's probably some kind of lesson here for me to learn about my studying habits, my personal goals, and my self-actualization potential, but instead I've been spending my brainpower on:
I biked 130km today, and started to plan out the next few days. I'm averaging over 100km/day, which gives me a much-desired cushion for spending a full day somewhere. Here's my path today (the little digression is my visit to a bike shop to buy new tires).
I started my day with a nice, calm 30km bike ride. Along the ride, I saw more of the world. Some I passed through, some I just saw directions for:
I also passed by endless peacefull hills. They got boring after a while, but here's one of my favourites:
After the 30km stretch, I stopped by a local creamie to get a root beer float. For my European friends, don't hate it until you try it. I sat there sipping that float for about 2 hours before getting on the road again.
The following image is for Brandon Epsteme:
In this town there is a street. it's the hip-est street on the block. In fact, the entire street is a block:
Although weedsport isn't too bad! It's a nice little town, and they even have a really cool mural by the highway:
And then I went back to taking picture of my trip around the world:
I passed over the I-90, the highway that I would have been taking had I been driving to Boston. Look how ufun it is!
At some point I decided to get a new tire, as my current one was bulging in all the wrong places:
I also replaced the tire of the front wheel so that my bike would match.
Don't look! I'm naked!
I didn't eat waffles today, but I did have some chocolate in my trail mix!
After a while, I got tired, and decided to stay the night along the south shore of Oneida Lake, just north of Syracuse. It was cottage country, and it tooks lots of door-to-door begging until I found someone who would let me camp on their lawn. Today's amazing people are Jeff, and his wife Michelle (and their three dogs) who let me pitch my tent right by the beautiful lakeside. Here's Jeff (the guy on the left. The other man in the photo is not his wife, but a neighbour. I got permission from Jeff and the neighbour to post this picture):
Aaaand, of course, no lakeside tenting would be complete without
One more picture:
