Right now i am sitting in an ice bath again - in a really weird old hotel in Newhaven. Today (Wednesday) didnt go quite as planned - in fact the last few days have been kind of interesting......
Had a good day when I reached Missouri, riding through the night.. Obviously yo don't see as much of your surroundings when riding at night so it is a strange feeling sometimes. I pretty much rode the Ozarks all in the dark - straight up and straight down. Pretty cool - just rolled down a hill, went into lowest gear and climbed up the next one, all night long!
But the whole day my chest and stomach felt worse and I wasn't feeling too good!
The following day was a long day!The terrain flattened out a lot during the afternoon. That night I felt like I was floating as i rode. It felt like there should be a headwind because i could feel the wind in my face and the trees were blowing towards me but certainly acted like a tail wind because I was just flying. It was a great feeling and a great night. Until the morning. I knew I would arrive at the next town at 6 am and was hoping the store there would be open, but unfortunately it wasn't and there was no sign giving the hours. So by this point my throat and chest were really hurting - it was kind of bothering me now in that it was freaking me out a bit. I was happy to wait an hour for the store to open if I had been sure it would but I had no way of knowing so I continued on my way. I plodded along for another 20 miles with very little food and water until I finally found a place with French toast on offer!
It was now another 10 miles to the little ferry that takes you across the Ohio River into Kentucky. I had been really looking forward to this part and so was quite excited about catching the ferry. I met up with two guys on touring bikes with Apidura bags all over them! Really nice guys and enjoyed chatting with them. Then a lady, Michelle, drove up in a car and explained she had been following me online ( and that her daughter has lupus like my sister) and she would like to do an interview. So we all chatted on the ferry and it was great. There was another 10 miles to the next town where I was hoping to find a doctor and so i got off the ferry and got going as quickly as possible - before realising I hadn't even taken a photo of the ferry. So annoyed with myself.
Managed to see a doctor who booked me in for some tests at the hospital later in the day.
Meanwhile I checked into a hotel and specifically asked if there was a bath. I was told yes and so I got my ice ready only to find there was no bath in my room only a shower. Unfortunately the shower was not working properly. Now I was annoyed. I had been charged $90 for this room (compared with $35 the previous night). So - no - not happening. I went to the front desk and demanded a refund. the guy was annoyed and I was upset because now i am eating into my sleep time! I headed down the road and found a great little B and B run by a really nice guy - ex police cop. He gave me a room and washed my gear while I got a few hours sleep. I had an appointment at the hospital at 3 pm. I was there for a couple of hours while they carried out various tests and was told I had a chest infection. They gave me some antibiotics along with something to settle my stomach and advised to take it easy!! Of course all this took a long time. Back to the B and B where I was cooked some pasta before setting off. I felt I rode really well for a while but after a while I could feel my chest hurting so took the advice and slowed down. I ended up just plodding along the whole night. Shame really since the conditions were perfect for riding. Barely any wind and rolling hills. If I had been feeling OK it would have been a good opportunity to put in some miles!
According to my map there should have been a hotel in the town of Sonoma but there was no hotel to be found. So I had to keep going to the town of Newhaven, to find a hotel off route by 1 mile. Quite an interesting looking place - really old. Going to have a quick bath, then off to bed. Dinner at 8.30 because they stop serving at 9. Then I will ride again during the night. Maybe.
Bit worried as I have just looked at the Tracker and Jesse is at 4199 miles but still a long way from the coast. He's the other side of Richmond which is about 100 miles from the ocean. Which is not good because it means that is an extra 200 miles than expected. Which is an extra day. Not very happy about that. To be fair this is exactly what I had calculated and written on my map sheets - but I had assumed the Tracker to match. I think my own mileage calculations a lot more accurate. It will be interesting to see what my final mileage is. We're getting there!
I actually sat in a bar earlier today chatting with a lady. She asked if I would do the race again - absolutely NO WAY! But of course as I am riding along I am thinking to myself 'Next time, I'll do this differently, next time I'll do such and such ....'But NO I am not doing it again!!
Right now I just want to sleep for the next 24 hours. But at the same time I just want to be finished!!
Keep it up Paul, you are an inspiration. Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back.
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