Day 8

Southwick Beach State Park to Fair Haven State Park ( 89.3 km)

It’s 7:45 pm and I’m ready for bed.   K told me I had to write something for the blog first; I will admit it’s ridiculously early to think about bed.  Since I’ve been told I have to write, I will take advantage of this opportunity to whine a little, OK, I’d like to whine a lot.

Hills, hills and more hills.  Get to the top of one hill and see the next one, no flat spot in between.  I don’t even like down hills anymore, since every one of them has an up hill on the other side.  The longer and faster the down hill, the steeper, and longer is the up hill.  By the time we got to Fair Haven I was feeling like a cycling failure.  During the day I had to walk up four hills, three strikes and you’re out, so what does four make?

The picture doesnt do justice to the hills!!!

As I was struggling up those hills I had lots of thoughts.  Maybe our friend R. would like a drive to come pick us up, but how could we describe which hill we were stuck on?  Maybe this would be a good time for the second coming of Christ and we would have a really good excuse to quit the ride.  Maybe one of us would have a heart attack and die and all our friends would say at the wake “He/she died doing what she loved”.  (hahaha)

Did I mention the wind?—in our face, all day.  Did I mention the heat?  Forecast for 87 F.  Dripping with sweat.

OK—enough whining.  We’ve been reassured by two people, one a cyclist, one not, that shortly after Fair Haven, the hills ease off and tomorrow will be better day.  Day after tomorrow will be virtually flat.

Highlight of the day.  As I was pushing my bike up the last hill into Fair Haven, I saw a sign for the Fly by Night Cookie Company.   After we picked up a few groceries, we went looking for the shop.  Fun place, with good cookies too!

J