Wind!

Last week the only thing we really wanted was to see the last hill. This week? Every night we check the weather to see what the winds will be the next day.

Last Thursday we left Dover, Ohio with some really ambitious goals. We wanted to be in Plain City, Ohio, by Friday evening; Indainapolis, Indiana, Sunday night; Arthur, Illinois, Tuesday night, and Hopedale, Illinois, Wednesday night. All this so that we could catch Liz in Hopedale before she left on her weekend camping trip. Actually, that's not true. The distances between destinations just so worked out so that we would either have a lot of short days, or several really long days. We opted for the later.

On Thursday morning we left Dover, Ohio and began our trek across Holmes County. The scenery was absolutey beautiful, but the rolling hills got the better of us. That day we covered 70 painful miles. The next day the hills began to disappear, but were quckly replaced by relentless wind. We thought the day was going to be a breeze, but the 57.5 miles to Plain City were much more than we had anticipated. It only got worse from there. Early Saturday morning we set off from Plain City, Ohio, with the intentions of covering 96 miles into a 15-20 mph headwind. I think that was the hardest day so far. Needless to say, the wind continued out of the west for the next four days. Fortunately we were able to keep with our original goals and hit all our detinations on time. The breakdown of miles are as follows: 79, 66.3, 75.8, 87.7. Concidering that we had strong winds out of the west, I think we did just fine, although today we are all really, really tired. Although we don't intend to keep up this pace all the way across the country, it is good to know we can do it.

So how have we managed to deal with the wind? I have a picture that I want to post but I am afraid our connection is a bit too slow today. We have quickly discovered the art of drafting. It is amazing the amount of energy that can be conserved by following in the wash of the lead biker. At times when the wind is not exactly head on, you may find us biking on the diagonal in order to maximize our efficiency. At one piont when I was in the back I couldn't help but think that our pattern looked a bit like geese in formation. We have worked out a plan so that every 5 miles, the person in the back passes everyone and takes the lead for the next five miles. Each of us have our own pace, but it allows everyone to get a break from the wind. I may take this picture and submit it to the people who make the motivational posters - "teamwork." :-)

Looking ahead... This morning we woke up to discover that the road that we were intending to use to cross the Mississippi River into Iowa is under 4 feet of water. If you couldn't have guessed already, detours are quite disheartening to us bikers. There is nothing quite as disturbing as to hear that a bridge is out. That normally means and additional 5-20 miles of additional riding. So, we will have to find another route...