Baie Verte, Newfoundland August 23Today, 145 km,Total, 2560km
Difficult start today. First sign of life was Bill packing his stuff, of which he has a lot. Bill likes gadgets. Because he isn't travelling self-contained, he doesn't have the same weight restriction as the rest of us. He furnished his spot with collapsible bed, chair, table, as well as a complete bike workshop. Very comfortable and useful, but it requires a fair bit of management skill to get it all packed away each morning. By the time I stuck my head out of my tent, he had everything neetly packed, waiting to be loaded in the van.
It had rained on and off overnight, and the whole site was pretty soggy with squishy mud under the cover of grass. all of our tents were wet from rain and grungy tree drippings on the outside, and from condensation inside, and our clothes and sleeping bags were steamy and humid. I roused myself andstarted packing, but no rush as there waws no sign of activity from anyone else.
The casualty-count from unrelated sinus infections is now three: Pete, Ryan and Bill, so everyone was happy to declared a delayed start. In fact Bill's legs were so shot from yeterday's ride hat he offered to take over sag duty so that Judy would have an opportunity to ride.
Finally got everyone mobilized around nine o'clock, and we drove to The Jungle Jm restaurant at the Comfort Inn, and enjoyed an OK breakfast in the company of stuufed monkeys and fake palm trees.
Finally hit the road at 10:30 for a rerun of yesterday's ride. The Trans-Canada Highway in this part of the province is, let it be said, monotonous. Mile upon mile of moorlands covered with scrubby pine trees and low shrubs. The road runs arrow straight for miles at a time, with long false flat climbs, usually ending in a steeper kick for a couple of hundred metres. We started at a good pace, with me sitting between the rear wheels of Pete and Ryan to get a good draft without being soaked by the spray from the damp road, and we kept our speed in the 30+km/hr range for best part of an hour before I finally got dropped on a steeper climb when I shifted down to my middle ring. The tailwind was still there, a little reduced, and the climbs were a bit milder than yesterday.
Bill dropped Judy on the road about 50 km ahead, the idea being that we would catch her and ride with her, which worked well except that by that time I wasn't part of "we". However, I was having a great ride, and my feet didn't touch the ground until the 90 km mark, at which time my average was 30km/hr - way out of my usual range. Bill was waiting in the van and I stopped long enough to drink a coke then carried on.
The original plan was to ride to Springdale at the 170 km mark, but at 145 km, I caught up with the crew outside a motel. Everyone was tired, and although I could have managed another 30km, I was happy to go with the flow and stop for the night.
We sat outside and had a couple of pops, then went into a dinner of various fried fish features. While we were eating, the first rainstorm of the day got going so we were happy not to be tenting (except Ryan who chose to sleep out back rather that listen to Bill and I snoring).
All talk was of Hurricane Bill, which although downgraded to a category one storm has been causing havoc in the maritime states and provinces, with people being swept away in coastal Maine and evacuations called everywhere. However, current indications are that we will be bypassed.
" my average was 30km/hr - way out of my usual range".
ReplyDeleteWhat's your usual average range, do you reckon, Barney?
This evening Dru and I successfully installed an Apple Time Capsule in place of our Netgear router on the home network. A great achievement and a great improvement in speed.