Gumo

Yesterday zach and I upped our mileage and biked 52 miles going from my parent's house to xenia ohio and back. This was our route. The first 30 some miles was getting to xenia which was pretty much a breeze. Had to ride a few decent hills before getting to the little miami bike trail which took us the rest of the way to xenia. I think we were then on the bike trail for the next 16 miles which basically feels like cheating. It is routed through all the flattest areas of the region so it is not even challenging. So yeah, the bike path dumped us off right in downtown xenia in which we took a break to eat massive amounts of taco bell. I am not sure that taco bell is the best nourishment for a day of bike riding, but whatevs... their new fresco menu is mega vegan and good so fuggit.

After finishing our hearty / healthy lunch we road across the parking lot to relax in a patch of grass behind arbys. Let me tell you, I thought I was back in cancun with the pure majesty of this patch of grass. All in all our break was maybe a little over an hour before we got back on the road to head back to my parent's house. We decided to mix things up and took 380 all the way back from xenia to my parent's house. However, this leg of the trip sort of sucked. We were biking directly against 15 to 20 mph winds the entire 21 miles back. Not to mention 380 is a constant barrage of hills. Granted there was almost as much downhill as there was uphill, it still sucked. The road basically was never just flat. So all the hills combined with the bad ass winds made that last half of the ride pretty exhausting. We road like 8 miles through the worst part of the hills and decided to take another brake and let our taco bell settle some more. Zach said there were a couple of times where he burritos were creeping up his throat haha.

This was our majestic break spot:





After our second short break we hit it again and killed the last 14 miles (though it still sucked). All in all, we felt just fine at the end of the ride and totally could have gone back at it after another break. As for technical difficulties... I have been struggling trying to adjust my front derailleur to a point where it is shifting reliably. I spent quite a bit of time trying to get it good myself and ultimately ended up ruining the cable. I then took it to montgomery cyclery to have it adjusted where they got it to a point where it was working pretty well, however, now that the cable has stretched a bit it is back to sucking. I am going to attempt to adjust it myself again and see if I can get it. If not... I suppose I will have to take it to the shop. Adjusting a triple crank derailleur is about as obnoxious as truing a wheel.

ONE WEEK + 1 DAY UNTIL DEPARTURE TO SAN FRAN.

Anyway, I leave you with a picture of zach (if you can even see him) eating my dust. Look at all that dust he is eating: