Day 4: Cromwell, Mile 80 (still)

I was late. Sarah was late. The ever threatening rain finally hit us. The day wasn’t shaping up to be smooth sailing like our other day trips.

We had planned to make three stops in town, starting from Watrous Park. But, Mother Nature had other plans for us. So, instead of doing our planned tour of Cromwell, we made our way to Talia’s. Though not ideal, the looming thunderstorm gave us the nudge inside we needed so we could do a gear reconciliation. Thanks to the generosity of the Staigers, we truly set up camp in the living room. We were joined by Smudge and Pudge, the resident cats, as well as Pumpkin the snake. We each got out our panniers and talked through which gear items could be left behind and what final purchases we needed to make.

After two hours of chatting and animal visits, the sunshine finally reappeared. Talia and her mother had very graciously packed a wonderful picnic for us to enjoy at Watrous Park. So back went, food in hand, to meet up with family friends of the Staigers whom we were supposed to have met on our biking route for the day. We had an incredible spread of quiche, salads, and orange almond cake with a strawberry rhubarb compote. I nearly ate myself into a coma.

Despite getting no miles in (just lots of food), we did get a very needed bike maintenance lesson from Talia’s father. He walked us through dropped chains, fixing flats, shifted handle bars, etc. I think we all walked away slightly more confident but also really hoping flying over the tops of our handle bars isn’t in our future.

Today was different but, nonetheless, truly wonderful.

P.S. your laugh for the day – despite our discussions of the various mechanical failures we may endure, we failed to account for dog poop.

So, tip of the day: be very careful biking through grass (especially at dusk). Dog poop is tough to the get out of your treads when you don’t have a hose. It’s also quite demoralizing to try and clean it out of your tires with baby wipes in a parking lot. Trust me, I have learned. Additionally, my smelly ride home truly highlighted my need for a bike rack.

— Mary Kate