Day 11

Mileage: 84
Total mileage: 815

Today I finally broke away from the MS crew, but not until late in the afternoon.

We started this morning pretty early, getting to breakfast as the local diner opened at 6am. Last night was rough, it's staying hot until late, which wouldn't be a problem except for the mosquitos which were vicious. I ended up having to put on my rain gear to fall asleep, only to take it off later in the night when I woke up sweating profusely. At least by then the mosquitos were gone. I've got to come up with a better system, maybe I'll get some bug spray tomorrow.

I wanted to introduce y'all to Kip and his daughter Bryn who're doing the ride cross country on a tandem. I've learned a bunch about the different dynamic of tandem biking from Kip over the last few days. In short, it works pretty well on flats, is extremely slow up hills and absolutely kills it on the downhills. Also, the back person is just an engine, they can't steer brake or shift at all so it takes a lot of trust in your front guy. Fortunately these guys have been riding together for a decade and have done loads of self supported trips up and down the west coast and around the country.

I didn't believe Kip when he told me yesterday he hit 52.4 mph on one of the downhills. I rode the same roads as him and topped out around 40. Sure enough, this morning between Booneville and Berea I was cruising down a hill at close to 35 mph, just cooking along, when suddenly I got buzzed by on the left by this crazy pair. As they shot by, easily 10mph faster, Kip muttered something like 'What's keeping you sweetheart?' And then they were gone and I had no shot at catching up. I believe him now.

We made it into Berea before noon and I went to the post office to pick up my new pedals. After a bit of hassle with the workers not being able to find my package, I finally got my new components and installed them.

My oh my, what a difference it makes to be clipped in again! I've got my upstroke back and I even had the whole afternoon to ride. I was going to take a half day's rest, but the pedals came in plenty early and I was feeling good, so I took off again after saying my goodbyes.

I finished my ride with around 37 more miles in the evening, ending up around Herrington lake. I took a quick dip to clean off the salt, and as I was trying to find a flat and legal spot to sleep, a car pulled up next to me and asked what I was up to.

A few minutes later I was riding across the bridge spanning the lake to sleep on the other side, courtesy of a nice lady named Monica and her friend Billy. I found a nice comfortable concrete slab with a great lake view and set up my bed for the night.

Before I went to bed I got to go hang out with my hosts for the night and chat for a bit. Billy had a Budweiser for me, so it was unequivocally a good evening. Picture of these guys below.

Tonight I'm sleeping in my rain gear once more because the bugs are biting again. At least it comes with an awesome light show from all the fireflies swirling around.

Early start again tomorrow, I'm solo once more so that means I can take some big bites out of the map ahead of me in the next couple days. Boy does it feel good to be running on a working machine again.

If anyone from the MS group is reading this, thanks a ton for being so much fun! I'll miss you guys and I hope you make it to San Fran safely.

G'night!