Given we have a day off today, we have time to share some general musings. Here is one.
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I have heard it said that Eskimos have over 100 words for "snow". Snow is such an important part of their environment, and subtle differences in the type of snow has such a significant effect on their day-to-day lives, that those differences warrant different words. It occurs to me that an analogous situation exists for bicyclists regarding the concept of "road".
Subtle differences in the texture, surfacing, and condition of the roadway, which one would never notice when traveling by car, can make huge differences in the comfort, and often in the safety, of your bike ride. Here are some of the examples that we've encountered in our first week, roadway surfaces and conditions which, if we were interested in trying to develop a new dictionary, would qualify for their own separate words.
-Smooth asphalt: generally means a smooth, comfortable ride
-Blacktop: similar to asphalt, but in extreme heat, the tar can begin to liquify and stick to your tires.
-Concrete: Usually smooth when in good condition, but frequently the dividing lines between the concrete blocks cause repetitive bumps as you cross them.
-Composite surfacing: When consisting of small pebbles in the composite, the surface is usually pretty smooth and easy to ride on. Composites of larger stones make rougher surfaces, and cause significant vibrations on the bike and on your body.
-Patched/repaired roadways: These will have different sections that were surfaced at different times, and often make for ridges and bumps when riding from one section to another.
-Roads with potholes or pitted surfaces create their own obvious problems for bikes.
-Dirt roads: We did get a little experience with this a few days ago, on our way to Coffeeville. On some sections of the road, the dirt was tightly packed, and pretty easy to ride on. Other sections had loose dirt or sand which caused our tires to lose traction and stop. Some sections had embedded rock in the dirt, which meant more bumps, but at least stability under the tires.
-Gravel: I'm not talking about gravel roads here, but rather paved roads that have occasional pools of gravel on the roadway. This is a real potential hazard, as the gravel can make the bike slide out of control. We continually look for gravel and give it a wide berth when we can.
-Debris in the roadway: rocks, wood debris (the logging industry is huge here, and the volume of lumber trucks on the roads is incredible. Some roads have wood chips, bark, twigs and sticks everywhere on them.) Broken glass presents another obvious issue for the bike tires.
-Railroad track crossings: Besides causing bumps for bikes riding over them, railroad tracks can present a hazard if they cross the road at such an angle that the bike tire could run nearly parallel to the tracks. Then the tire could get caught in the ruts along the rails and cause an accident. We always try to adjust the direction of our approach to train tracks so that we hit them as close to perpendicular to the rail as possible.
Road shoulders carry their own variations of conditions, and because we try to ride in the shoulder where possible, this has a lot of relevance for us as well.
-The best shoulders are those that are simply extensions of the smooth roadway, separated only by the painted white line. The wider the better!
-Often, the shoulder is made of lesser quality materials, e.g., coarser composite, compared to the roadway, and offer rougher riding. Then, we ride the road when it is clear and move into the shoulder when a vehicle approaches from the rear.
-On most large state roads in Alabama, shoulders consist of rumble strips -- diagonal grooves in the pavement designed to awaken a driver whose car has drifted off the roadway and onto the shoulder. Great idea, but really bad for bike riding. Again, we ride the road when we can, but there were some very busy highways where we just had to put up with the bone-jarring ride on the rumble strips in the shoulder.
-We have learned to expect more debris in the shoulders, especially the concrete shoulders on bridges. I should also note that when crossing a bridge, mounted up on the bike, the bridge railings often look precariously low. We try to not ride too close to those railings, not ride too close to the traffic, and still avoid any debris or broken glass.
So, as Eskimos apparently do with snow, we find ourselves continually assessing and evaluating the road under our bikes. Those road conditions, along with the traffic conditions around us, determine our second by second decisions as to where to ride, how fast, when to stop, etc. Seems like a lot to think about, and it is, but we are finding it is beginning to come second nature to us now.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Livingston, AL
We are now in Livingston, Alabama, 5 days into our trip, and we are doing well. Livingston is just off the published UGRR route, near the 230-mile point of the route. We have put about 260 total miles on our bikes since leaving Mobile. This is our first time having computer access since our last post.
Day 3 (Monday). Monday was as good a day as Sunday was challenging. After that hard day on Sunday, we took the morning of Monday off. Took the time to get a good breakfast & lunch, found a laundromat to wash our clothes, and found the library where we checked email and entered our last blog posts. We biked in the afternoon, altering our plans to do a shorter ride, to Coffeeville, AL. The roads were some of the best we'd seen, beautiful rolling hills, where the downhills more than compensated for any uphills. Very fun riding!!! At one point, we chose an optional short cut which was identified on the map, but which required that we cross 1.5 miles of dirt road. That was a bit of an adventure. Much of it was ridable, but in some places the accumulated sand was so deep we had to walk our bikes through it -- a little tough given the weight. But we got thru it ok. At Coffeeville, we road an additional 4 miles out of town to a campground where we stayed the night. It was a beautiful place on the banks of the Tombigbee River.
Day 4 (Tuesday) (Subtitle: Stranded!) Tuesday brought some renewed challenges. I (Mike) found myself with bike problems that morning, problems with shifting gears. Virtually impossible to proceed this way. (Why the sudden change one morning, I don't know.) Anyway, we spent a good part of the morning at the campground working on the cable adjustments, riding around in circles in the parking lot to test it, etc. Finally got the gears to the point where the bike was, while not ideal, at least ridable. Interesting learning here is that there are NO bike shops anywhere close to the towns we are passing thru down here. (The maps had warned of this... they were right!) Closest shop with a mechanic was in Mobile, which we were certainly not going back to. The next one up ahead is in Starkville, MS, about 25 miles outside of Columbus. Our plan now is to catch them when we meet our friends in Columbus on Saturday. In the meantime, I am ok riding as is.
Because of losing riding time on Tuesday morning, though, we were not able to get as far as we wanted to that night. That meant being in the middle of nowhere for the night. We set our objective for a store at a major intersection on the route, got there at about 5:20 pm, only to find that the store closed at 5! But 2 nice gentlemen there directed us into the small town of Nanaflia, where another store was still open. We went there, replenished our supply of water and gatorade, and got the recommendation from the store owner of a good, safe place to set up our tent, on the grounds of a church just outside of town. It was an excellent place, and we had our first, successful experience of impromptu camping.
Day 5 (Wednesday) was a 50 mile ride to where we are now, Livingston. Some more great biking roads, especially during the morning. We encountered our first rain of the trip that day. Fortunately the worst of it hit while we were stopped at a service station, so we took advantage of eating and talking to folks while under cover. When the hard rain gave way to gentle rain, we donned our rain jackets, packed up our key things (camera, phones, etc.) in plastic, and continued on down the road. This was an excellent first test of our "rainy weather systems", and for the most part it all worked out fine. The only real discomfort was cold wet feet, but that passed once the rain ended, perhaps a half hour later. This also gave us experience riding on wet roads. One clearly must slow down and use extra caution, but it was all common sense, and very workable. At one point during the day (fortunately, the rain had stopped by then), our route crossed the Tombigbee River again, on a very scary bridge with some very heavy truck traffic. Assessing the situation, we quickly concluded that we did not need to risk trying to ride this. We crossed the road and walked our bikes across the bridge in a wide shoulder, facing oncoming traffic. Much better! The rest of the ride went well, although for some reason the hills, while not big, felt a little harder than those in the morning.
So here we are now, in Livingston, at a Comfort Inn hotel, with nice room, shower, an in-house laundromat, a computer in the front lobby, and a Subway and a Burger King right next door. Who could ask for anything more???!! We find ourselves doing well, beginning to feel the wear of hard, successive days of biking, and looking forward to being able to take a little time off. Today our plan is to bike about 55 miles to Aliceville, and then on Friday it is a short 33 miles to Columbus, where we will meet our friends, take care of my bike, and get a little time where we can take a rest from pedaling.
More as we have the opportunity to enter it. Thanks everyone, for your comments and emails -- it is really fun to see those and to have that occasional contact with the "outside world"!
Day 3 (Monday). Monday was as good a day as Sunday was challenging. After that hard day on Sunday, we took the morning of Monday off. Took the time to get a good breakfast & lunch, found a laundromat to wash our clothes, and found the library where we checked email and entered our last blog posts. We biked in the afternoon, altering our plans to do a shorter ride, to Coffeeville, AL. The roads were some of the best we'd seen, beautiful rolling hills, where the downhills more than compensated for any uphills. Very fun riding!!! At one point, we chose an optional short cut which was identified on the map, but which required that we cross 1.5 miles of dirt road. That was a bit of an adventure. Much of it was ridable, but in some places the accumulated sand was so deep we had to walk our bikes through it -- a little tough given the weight. But we got thru it ok. At Coffeeville, we road an additional 4 miles out of town to a campground where we stayed the night. It was a beautiful place on the banks of the Tombigbee River.
Day 4 (Tuesday) (Subtitle: Stranded!) Tuesday brought some renewed challenges. I (Mike) found myself with bike problems that morning, problems with shifting gears. Virtually impossible to proceed this way. (Why the sudden change one morning, I don't know.) Anyway, we spent a good part of the morning at the campground working on the cable adjustments, riding around in circles in the parking lot to test it, etc. Finally got the gears to the point where the bike was, while not ideal, at least ridable. Interesting learning here is that there are NO bike shops anywhere close to the towns we are passing thru down here. (The maps had warned of this... they were right!) Closest shop with a mechanic was in Mobile, which we were certainly not going back to. The next one up ahead is in Starkville, MS, about 25 miles outside of Columbus. Our plan now is to catch them when we meet our friends in Columbus on Saturday. In the meantime, I am ok riding as is.
Because of losing riding time on Tuesday morning, though, we were not able to get as far as we wanted to that night. That meant being in the middle of nowhere for the night. We set our objective for a store at a major intersection on the route, got there at about 5:20 pm, only to find that the store closed at 5! But 2 nice gentlemen there directed us into the small town of Nanaflia, where another store was still open. We went there, replenished our supply of water and gatorade, and got the recommendation from the store owner of a good, safe place to set up our tent, on the grounds of a church just outside of town. It was an excellent place, and we had our first, successful experience of impromptu camping.
Day 5 (Wednesday) was a 50 mile ride to where we are now, Livingston. Some more great biking roads, especially during the morning. We encountered our first rain of the trip that day. Fortunately the worst of it hit while we were stopped at a service station, so we took advantage of eating and talking to folks while under cover. When the hard rain gave way to gentle rain, we donned our rain jackets, packed up our key things (camera, phones, etc.) in plastic, and continued on down the road. This was an excellent first test of our "rainy weather systems", and for the most part it all worked out fine. The only real discomfort was cold wet feet, but that passed once the rain ended, perhaps a half hour later. This also gave us experience riding on wet roads. One clearly must slow down and use extra caution, but it was all common sense, and very workable. At one point during the day (fortunately, the rain had stopped by then), our route crossed the Tombigbee River again, on a very scary bridge with some very heavy truck traffic. Assessing the situation, we quickly concluded that we did not need to risk trying to ride this. We crossed the road and walked our bikes across the bridge in a wide shoulder, facing oncoming traffic. Much better! The rest of the ride went well, although for some reason the hills, while not big, felt a little harder than those in the morning.
So here we are now, in Livingston, at a Comfort Inn hotel, with nice room, shower, an in-house laundromat, a computer in the front lobby, and a Subway and a Burger King right next door. Who could ask for anything more???!! We find ourselves doing well, beginning to feel the wear of hard, successive days of biking, and looking forward to being able to take a little time off. Today our plan is to bike about 55 miles to Aliceville, and then on Friday it is a short 33 miles to Columbus, where we will meet our friends, take care of my bike, and get a little time where we can take a rest from pedaling.
More as we have the opportunity to enter it. Thanks everyone, for your comments and emails -- it is really fun to see those and to have that occasional contact with the "outside world"!
Monday, May 14, 2007
Heat, Hills, and Hunger
We left Hubbard's Landing with goodbyes and thank yous. And thus started Day #2, which by the title of this you can tell brought us some challenges.
This was Mother's Day, a quiet Sunday which we figured would be good traveling on some roads which normally could be busy with some truck traffic through one stretch. From that perspective, this was a good choice. Relatively few vehicles on these roads. On the other hand, we learned that the towns we were going through: a) are extremely small -- more like little crossroads than towns; and b) the few commercial services that exist there are completely closed down on Sundays.
The route we took had many hills, some of them really large, and the temperature was in the 90's F (32-35 C). We found one open gas station / convenience store where we were able to buy gatorade, bread and turkey slices. After 45 miles, we had gone through 4 gatorade bottles and 4 water bottles, and were down to our last swallows of water in the last bottle when we finally pulled up the last immense hill and entered the town of Perdue Hill, where we were anxious to replenish our resources, maybe even stay the night. Sorry, this was not to be. Not only were there no hotels or campgrounds here, but the combination gas station/post office / convenience store was closed. The only good thing is that it had two working vending machines with cold drinks there, and there was a very fine bench under the shade of the gas station roof in front of the store. We got some drinks, literally bought the one machine out of its supply of bottled water, took our shoes and socks off, stretched out on the bench and rested for about an hour. The best closed shop I've ever experienced! Oh the other good thing is that this was the first place we'd been to in the last day and half that had decent cell phone reception, so we were able to phone "happy mothers day" greetings to my mother, and Joan was able to receive them from our kids.
At 4 pm, the temperature was still high, but beginning to drop just a bit, and we dragged ourselves back onto our bikes and set out for Grove Hill. Just another 17 miles down the road, according to the map. We had one absolutely outstanding downhill ride from Perdue Hill down to the Alabama River, but we found that what goes down must eventually go back up. There is a reason that Perdue Hill and Grove Hill have the word "hill" in their names. The hills would have been difficult work anyway, but after the long day we'd already had, and no food besides our little turkey sandwiches and some handfuls of gorp (peanuts/raisins/M&Ms mixture), this was truly a very, very hard 17 miles. Climbing up the last huge long hill we expected to see a town around every bend, but it was like a cruel hoax.... each bend would only bring another bend or small rise (small rises were beginning to feel like big hills in their own right). Finally, as dusk began to set in, we came into the town of Grove Hill. And low and behold there was an open convenience store and a fried chicken fast food restaurant called Chesters. We'd found an oasis in the desert!!!! Quickly, we ordered a chicken dinner, which they boxed and bagged for us, bungee tied it to the back of our bikes, bought 2 more bottles of gatorade, got some extra bags to more securely tie down our food from a nice young man who was there watching us through all of this, and then rode as fast as our weary legs could go down the main street of Grove Hill to the other end of town where we found our hotel, just as true darkness fell. We collapsed into our room, and had the best fried chicken dinner this world has ever known!
Day 2 was in the books, thankfully. Just under 70 miles covered in a mere 7 hours and 33 minutes of biking time. Ugh!
This was Mother's Day, a quiet Sunday which we figured would be good traveling on some roads which normally could be busy with some truck traffic through one stretch. From that perspective, this was a good choice. Relatively few vehicles on these roads. On the other hand, we learned that the towns we were going through: a) are extremely small -- more like little crossroads than towns; and b) the few commercial services that exist there are completely closed down on Sundays.
The route we took had many hills, some of them really large, and the temperature was in the 90's F (32-35 C). We found one open gas station / convenience store where we were able to buy gatorade, bread and turkey slices. After 45 miles, we had gone through 4 gatorade bottles and 4 water bottles, and were down to our last swallows of water in the last bottle when we finally pulled up the last immense hill and entered the town of Perdue Hill, where we were anxious to replenish our resources, maybe even stay the night. Sorry, this was not to be. Not only were there no hotels or campgrounds here, but the combination gas station/post office / convenience store was closed. The only good thing is that it had two working vending machines with cold drinks there, and there was a very fine bench under the shade of the gas station roof in front of the store. We got some drinks, literally bought the one machine out of its supply of bottled water, took our shoes and socks off, stretched out on the bench and rested for about an hour. The best closed shop I've ever experienced! Oh the other good thing is that this was the first place we'd been to in the last day and half that had decent cell phone reception, so we were able to phone "happy mothers day" greetings to my mother, and Joan was able to receive them from our kids.
At 4 pm, the temperature was still high, but beginning to drop just a bit, and we dragged ourselves back onto our bikes and set out for Grove Hill. Just another 17 miles down the road, according to the map. We had one absolutely outstanding downhill ride from Perdue Hill down to the Alabama River, but we found that what goes down must eventually go back up. There is a reason that Perdue Hill and Grove Hill have the word "hill" in their names. The hills would have been difficult work anyway, but after the long day we'd already had, and no food besides our little turkey sandwiches and some handfuls of gorp (peanuts/raisins/M&Ms mixture), this was truly a very, very hard 17 miles. Climbing up the last huge long hill we expected to see a town around every bend, but it was like a cruel hoax.... each bend would only bring another bend or small rise (small rises were beginning to feel like big hills in their own right). Finally, as dusk began to set in, we came into the town of Grove Hill. And low and behold there was an open convenience store and a fried chicken fast food restaurant called Chesters. We'd found an oasis in the desert!!!! Quickly, we ordered a chicken dinner, which they boxed and bagged for us, bungee tied it to the back of our bikes, bought 2 more bottles of gatorade, got some extra bags to more securely tie down our food from a nice young man who was there watching us through all of this, and then rode as fast as our weary legs could go down the main street of Grove Hill to the other end of town where we found our hotel, just as true darkness fell. We collapsed into our room, and had the best fried chicken dinner this world has ever known!
Day 2 was in the books, thankfully. Just under 70 miles covered in a mere 7 hours and 33 minutes of biking time. Ugh!
On the Road! (And some philosophy passed on)
The trip has officially begun! We are writing this from Grove Hill, Alabama, after having completed two full days of riding, covering 107 miles of the route so far, and logging an actual 124 miles on the bikes (riding to our accomodations each night, around town riding, wrong turns, etc. mean more miles than what the route actually shows.)
We are doing fine. Compared to the places we've been through since leaving Mobile on Saturday morning, Grove Hill (pop 1438) is a very good sized town, and a friendly place. The first two days of riding have been very different, so I am going to do two separate postings. This one is about Day #1.
We left Mobile at about 7 am Saturday morning, very excited and filled with anticipation. The "butterflies" that we'd felt the previous couple of days were gone... we were just ready to start. The early Saturday AM departure was planned to avoid any heavy traffic on the big city downtown streets and the bridges that cross the bay. Riding was good, but by the time we got out of the city and past the town of Spanish Fort, we started hitting hills. We took a break at Blakely State Park and had a nice conversation with the park ranger there. The heat as the day wore on made riding a lot of work, but we made it to Stockton by 2 pm. We found the most fabulous restaurant, the Stagecoach Cafe. They had a luncheon buffet of great food, and did we eat!! True southern cooked vegetables, pot roast & chicken, desserts, and lots of southern sweetened iced tea. It was great! Super friendly people, too, all very curious about the trip we are doing.
We then went on to the campground at Hubbard Landing, which was recommended by the Inaugural Group riders when we saw them in Cincinnati. The campground is on a lake, and has been owned by brothers Harold and Jimmy Byars since 1950. These folks could not have been nicer. They remembered the first group from a few weeks ago, and just went out of their way to make us as comfortable as possible.
That evening, with our tent set up, we went and sat on the porch outside the campground office and just talked and talked with Jimmy, his wife Frances, and nephew Paul. Fine people. And the primary piece of advice / philosophy given to us by Alvin, the group leader of that first group of riders, came back to me. He said that you can ride the route and be a tourist, or you can be a traveler. A TOURIST is someone who goes and sees and takes the memories and experience home with them. A TRAVELER gives as well as takes ..... gives in terms of the interactions with the people he/she passes. The local people in the towns one rides through are generally friendly and very interested in the bike trip, this route that many have now heard about, and the people who ride it. They truly want to talk and interact. We are making it a point to take the time to do so on this trip, and already it is making the trip all the more meaningful to us.
We are doing fine. Compared to the places we've been through since leaving Mobile on Saturday morning, Grove Hill (pop 1438) is a very good sized town, and a friendly place. The first two days of riding have been very different, so I am going to do two separate postings. This one is about Day #1.
We left Mobile at about 7 am Saturday morning, very excited and filled with anticipation. The "butterflies" that we'd felt the previous couple of days were gone... we were just ready to start. The early Saturday AM departure was planned to avoid any heavy traffic on the big city downtown streets and the bridges that cross the bay. Riding was good, but by the time we got out of the city and past the town of Spanish Fort, we started hitting hills. We took a break at Blakely State Park and had a nice conversation with the park ranger there. The heat as the day wore on made riding a lot of work, but we made it to Stockton by 2 pm. We found the most fabulous restaurant, the Stagecoach Cafe. They had a luncheon buffet of great food, and did we eat!! True southern cooked vegetables, pot roast & chicken, desserts, and lots of southern sweetened iced tea. It was great! Super friendly people, too, all very curious about the trip we are doing.
We then went on to the campground at Hubbard Landing, which was recommended by the Inaugural Group riders when we saw them in Cincinnati. The campground is on a lake, and has been owned by brothers Harold and Jimmy Byars since 1950. These folks could not have been nicer. They remembered the first group from a few weeks ago, and just went out of their way to make us as comfortable as possible.
That evening, with our tent set up, we went and sat on the porch outside the campground office and just talked and talked with Jimmy, his wife Frances, and nephew Paul. Fine people. And the primary piece of advice / philosophy given to us by Alvin, the group leader of that first group of riders, came back to me. He said that you can ride the route and be a tourist, or you can be a traveler. A TOURIST is someone who goes and sees and takes the memories and experience home with them. A TRAVELER gives as well as takes ..... gives in terms of the interactions with the people he/she passes. The local people in the towns one rides through are generally friendly and very interested in the bike trip, this route that many have now heard about, and the people who ride it. They truly want to talk and interact. We are making it a point to take the time to do so on this trip, and already it is making the trip all the more meaningful to us.
Friday, May 11, 2007
We're in Mobile
We left Cincinnati yesterday, our bikes and gear packed in a rental van, and had a very smooth trip south. We stopped for the night a little south of Montgomery, Alabama. This morning, we came the rest of the way down to Mobile. We checked into our hotel here, unloaded our bikes and repositioned our front wheels and seats that we had had to remove for the trip down, and returned the rental van. This afternoon, we've been doing a little touring of downtown Mobile. It appears to be a very nice, friendly city. And quite warm, temperature-wise!
We will spend the night here tonight, and then will leave early tomorrow (Saturday) morning, the idea being to negotiate the big city streets and highways of Mobile when the traffic is at its lightest.
The idea has hit this afternoon that we are here now with our only "wheels" being our bicycle wheels, and so the trip is about to begin, and the reality is hitting home.
Thanks to everyone for all of your good wishes and statements of support.... and for your comments that we should be careful. Indeed, we appreciate and have internalized your concerns. Rest assured we plan to take this very slowly and very carefully.
We will write more when we get to another computer, somewhere up the road.
--Mike & Joan
We will spend the night here tonight, and then will leave early tomorrow (Saturday) morning, the idea being to negotiate the big city streets and highways of Mobile when the traffic is at its lightest.
The idea has hit this afternoon that we are here now with our only "wheels" being our bicycle wheels, and so the trip is about to begin, and the reality is hitting home.
Thanks to everyone for all of your good wishes and statements of support.... and for your comments that we should be careful. Indeed, we appreciate and have internalized your concerns. Rest assured we plan to take this very slowly and very carefully.
We will write more when we get to another computer, somewhere up the road.
--Mike & Joan
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Inaugural UGRR Cyclists in Cincinnati
Today, the inaugural riders started their day at East Fork Lake State Park, and rode a ceremonial ride to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati. Members of the Cincinnati Cycle Club joined them for the ride, along with staff members from the Freedom Center. Joan and I attended, and rode with the group. (Click on the photos to enlarge. Hit BACK on your browser to return to the Blog.)
In attendance was Allison Keyes, from National Public Radio. She rode with the group today, and will be with them during the ceremonies at the Freedom Center on Thursday. She is doing a feature story on the trail, its purpose,
and this group's ride. She expects it to air on either All Things Considered or Morning Edition within the next couple of weeks.
Below, part of the group of riders, taking a time-out near Mariemont.
We stopped at the Harriett Beecher Stowe House on Gilbert Ave., and were given a short tour.
In attendance was Allison Keyes, from National Public Radio. She rode with the group today, and will be with them during the ceremonies at the Freedom Center on Thursday. She is doing a feature story on the trail, its purpose,
and this group's ride. She expects it to air on either All Things Considered or Morning Edition within the next couple of weeks.Below, part of the group of riders, taking a time-out near Mariemont.
We stopped at the Harriett Beecher Stowe House on Gilbert Ave., and were given a short tour.
When we reached the Freedom Center, the group pitched their tents on the grounds behind the Center. Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals, is in the background.
By the time we rode home, Joan and I had covered about 26 miles, our final training ride. Now it is time to finish packing and get ready for our departure in the morning.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Visited Ripley, OH & Met the Inaugural Riders!
The UGRR route is a very newly-established route, and the first official group of riders is conducting a ceremonial inaugural ride of the trail right now. These folks left Mobile on April 15, and as chance would have it, they are arriving in the Cincinnati area this week. They reached Ripley, Ohio, on Sunday, and yesterday (Monday), Ripley put on a formal welcoming ceremony for the group. Joan and I traveled to Ripley yesterday for this occasion.
Ripley is a small, very historic town about an hour east of Cincinnati on the Ohio River, and holds a very important place in Underground Railroad history. Two houses in Ripley are especially notable. The Rankin house (shown above) was the home of Rev. John Rankin, who personally assisted as many as 2000 people to freedom during the Underground Railroad days.
The second house was the Parker house (shown at left), home to John P. Parker. He was born a slave, worked to purchase his own freedom, and acted as a "conductor" under very dangerous conditions to help many people cross the Ohio River to their freedom.
While visiting Ripley, we were able to meet the cyclists on this first ride. They were very gracious in spending time with us, sharing their experiences from the ride so far, and giving us pointers about what to expect when we set out ourselves.
In addition, since some of these riders were actually responsible for a part of the project of creating this route, we got to hear first hand about the work and the philosophy behind the route, and the partnership that took place between the University of Pittsburgh and Adventure Cycling to make it happen.At right, Joan poses with Mario Browne (L) and Dr. Stephen Thomas (R), both of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Minority Health, and both active leaders in the UGRR bike trail project. Beyond commemorating an historical heritage, their interest in the UGRR route was in encouraging minorities to adopt healthy, exercise-oriented lifestyles as a way of overcoming today's statistics of disproportionate health issues in the minority groups in this country.
Below is a group photo of all the riders we met. Adventure Cycling provided the tour leaders, Alvin, leaning on the bike (front
center), and Joy, 2nd from the left in the middle row. This was a very diverse group. One man is from Japan, a number of others are from the west or east costs. The oldest member of the group is 76 years old!While at the welcoming ceremony in Ripley, this man and his two young sons came riding up on this triple-tandem bike. They were wondering what the gathering was about.
It turns out that they are from Boise, Idaho, on a cross-country tour of their own, and they suddenly generated much interest in their own right!All told, a very interesting day, and incredibly helpful to us as we try to get our minds wrapped around what is ahead of us!
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