Bike Across America – Day 41

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Start: London, Ontario
End: Brantford, Ontario
Mileage today/cumulative: 69 (111 kilometers) / 3,025
Elevation Ascended: 1,965′
Weather: Sunny, 13cº / 55° at start; sunny, 25c° / 77fº at finish
3D Relive Video (approx. 1 minute)

Well, we hit another milestone today by surpassing 3,000 total miles. We’ve been surprised at how well our bikes and bodies have held up, in spite of the punishment they’ve taken. Nine days remaining with eight rides to go.

Conversations with our new friends have shifted to what everyone will do after this. Most of them talk about proper recovery and figuring out how to maximize the incredible base we’ve got for endurance. Some wonder if they’ll be noticeably faster when they return to their regular bike shop rides. Others wonder what it will be like when they return home to their spouses and partners, who have not had this shared experience. We’re thankful that we won’t have that issue. When we do these group adventures we always manage to collect some friends for life and it’s always sad to say “see you later”. Tomorrow we say goodbye to our friend Jack Markell, who is splitting off from the rest of us and completing his coast-to-coast route (with support from friends along the way) in his home state of Delaware, where he will be greeted by a large group of family, friends, and probably a bunch of people who voted for him when he was twice elected as Governor. Early on, Jack had plenty of moments of self-doubt on the bike and some of those long days out West beat him down. While the rest of us were having fun on the bike, Jack looked pretty miserable. That seemed to change somewhere in the middle of the country and he’s overcome those early demons to become a different rider. We’ve grown fond of him as a friend and are looking forward to biking and hiking with him after the glow of this adventure wears off. After 3,000+ miles with Jack, it won’t be quite the same in Portsmouth NH without him.

One funny moment on today’s ride. Six of us stopped to look at ginseng plants and someone asked “what do they grow ginseng for?” Nobody could remember. We all shrugged our shoulders until Booze Alan said “I think it’s used for memory.” Oh yeah.

We complete our venture into Canada tomorrow when we return to the United States by riding over the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls. It’s going to be another epic day!