“Saturday's Long Ride”

There is much that I want to remember about this ride, besides the sheer length of it (43.83 miles).

For starters, I found that my bike is not actually falling apart as I thought it was. The chain was getting rusty from lack of grease, and that was causing the rear derailleur to jam occasionally, and was also contributing a lot to the bike's noisiness. So, I stopped at Mystic Cycle Center (darn, they don't have a web site yet) and bought a small bottle of chain grease and a new pair of gloves.

What a difference! The chain is working perfectly, shifting is smooth and trouble-free, and the only noise from the bike is the humming of the tires, which is a sound that I truly love. The new gloves are great, too. The old ones never did fit very well (I have very large hands), and were worn out, but the new ones fit great (like a glove). Best of all, the new gloves have very thick gel padding right at the ball of my hand where the most pressure is put on the handlebars. I've had a dozen pairs of riding gloves, but never any as comfortable as these! (With the last gloves, my ring finger and pinky would go numb on both hands after about an hour. Not so with the new ones.)

I rode through downtown Mystic, and followed Route One to Westerly, then took Main Street to Watch Hill Road, then to Shore Road and finally to Atlantic Avenue. When I reached the far end of Atlantic Ave, I'd been over twenty one miles, and my average speed was 18.6 MPH... that's better than I've done in at least three years!

Unfortunately, I ran out of water on the return trip. I suppose it's more accurate to say that I ran out of melted water, as my CamelBak was still full of ice. Darn insulation is too good in that thing, it wasn't letting the ice melt! So, I visited Roy and Laura Bounds to get some Water. Laura's father Perry (in his 70's) was walking across the driveway when I pulled in. I explained that I needed some water, so the old ham walked back to Roy and Laura's door and acted like he was dying, begging them for some water. He put a little scare into them, I think, until they saw me standing behind him. Perry's a funny guy. :-)

I must have averaged around 16 MPH on the return trip, but that's OK as it was such a long ride.