Day 2: Manchester & Glastonbury, Miles 20-50

What an amazing day today! We did about 30 miles around Glastonbury and Manchester, starting at Dr. Albert’s office in Manchester. He and our friend Ryan who is working with him this summer came out to greet us and send us on our way. It was a great start to the afternoon!

Next, we were off to see Sarah’s Clic preceptor, Dr. Adamenko. We had a nice chat with him, and as we were about to leave, we realized Sarah’s front tire was a bit squishy. After a few minutes of pumping the tire manually, she decided to use her carbon dioxide inflator, which worked like a charm and firmed the tire up in no time! Our first bike handiwork on the road!

Our next stop was our friend Kelly’s house! We were very excited about the snack bags she had told us about, and they did not disappoint. Cookies, parmesan crisps, fruit snacks, almonds, and a kind bar! YUM! We sat in her yard and ate, played with her adorable dogs Edgar and Maya, and caught up on the last couple months of our lives. We had a great time and wish we could’ve stayed longer but the clouds and thunder in the distance were ominous and we still had 20 miles left so we were on our way.

MK was navigating for the day, and she had been warning us all afternoon about the “really big hill later.” It was finally time for us to tackle the hill, which took us from our lowest elevation of the day to the highest elevation. We got through it together, and I loved the challenge. Nothing like a good long hill to invigorate you! Just a warm up for what’s to come in a couple weeks, I’m sure. The top of the hill brought the amazing reward of making it to Dr. Herbst’s house!

We were so pleasantly surprised to see tons of chalk artwork greeting us outside Dr. Herbst’s house that her kids and neighbor had made. It included our names, our charity, hearts, rainbows, and flowers, and even a broken bone because med school. They even made each of us a sign to cheer us on! The kids brought us some fresh-squeezed lemonade, a basket of chocolates, trail mix, and dried mango. Delicious!

Before we departed Dr. Herbst’s house her kids led us on a mini bike trip around the street, which was so much fun. We had a great time visiting them.

Feeling very well fed and hydrated after our last couple stops, we were ready to finish up our last 10 miles and head to our friend Anthony’s apartment. The journey to Anthony’s was very pleasant, with lots of rolling hills and greenery. Anthony and his super cute dog Max came out to greet us, and we had a really nice time talking in the parking lot and playing with Max.

We only had a few miles left to get back to our starting point, and since MK’s phone had died, I volunteered to lead the way. I was kind of nervous to lead and I had been very happy to follow these last couple days because I’m new to cycling and sharing a road with cars scares me. Luckily, Sarah is amazing at road biking and taught all of us how to interact with cars, which we are very grateful for. With Sarah’s support, I led for the rest of the way back and realized it wasn’t as scary as I thought.

As we pulled into Dr. Albert’s parking lot, a nearby house started setting off fireworks, which felt like it couldn’t have been a coincidence. It was the perfect finish to an amazing day with friends. We all agreed that riding together is so fun, and feels so right after our months apart. These last two days have built up our confidence a bit, and gotten us very excited for what’s to come next Friday as we start our big loop!

With a happy heart and happy quads,

Talia