andy reagan only the interesting stuff

To Portsmith, Ohio

We crossed the border today into Ohio, with a shorter and nice 60 mile ride into Portsmith.  I'm at the public library now, and using their computer so I can't do pictures but I'll add them in soon, they close in an hour so I could run and go get my laptop but I don't really feel like haha.

The bin has extra space!!

My day started at 6:15 this morning, packing my bin up so tight that I have extra room!

Bikes in the AM, ready to be ridden!

What breakfast usually looks like in a church kitchen

The typical breakfast setup: bagels, cereal, and bananas in the church's kitchen.

It was only a one mile ride before we crossed the river into Ohio, here's a picture of my next to the sign on the bridge and of the group.

Welcome to Ohio!

The group! And Mark in the middle of the road haha

At 10 miles, Mark, Emma, Jen, and I stopped for a quick stretch break, and before long we were at the back of group, which is closer together on these less mountainous days which is nice.  We got onto some really nice country roads, and before long had to stop to take a picture with some of the haybails!

We love haybails!!

We saw a pretty cool suspension bridge along the way, but those didn't really come out but here is one anyway haha.

It's not worth the minute it would take to upload haha.

There was one really steep, but not very long hill and at the top there were some very friendly and cute dogs.  One was a puppy

The black puppy was sooo cute, a little shy too

I tried hard to drink lots of water, and successfully finished my camelbak (100oz of water) and a bottle of gatorade (20oz) for almost a gallon before lunch!

Everyone was there today for the most part because we weren't that spread out

Speaking of water bottles, I bought two new ones last night because one of mine had mold in it (I happened to look at the bottom of it at dinner the other night, it's opaque, and it was really gross) and the other one has some grease in the threads of the cap and I've been using it....but I thought I'd play it safe.  I was telling people that I was going to keep it with the "what's good for the bike is good for me" philosophy...but nah.

Here's the bike sans saddle bag (broken) and with the new clear water bottles

The last 5 miles of today's ride were the worst part, on a pretty busy highway, but I went fast through it and Jen kept right up with me, I was impressed.  After surviving that, most of the group stopped for ice cream, and I got a chocolate shake...yum.

After we got here I got to take a shower rigth away (love that) and then we found out that Sharif had clippers and all the guys went to town haha.  Dave buzzed his head down with a one, Joe cut his bread into a handlebar, Noah trimmed his beard into just the dirt stache, and both Joe and Noah showed their new inner cyclist by shaving their legs!

Instead of just buzzing my hair straight off (I had the option of a #1 or #2), I decided to go for the mohawk!!

The MOHAWK and my beard after only one week, the beard-off is going well

After all of this took place, it was still only 2:30 and so we decided to go check out the town and grab a snack to hold us over till dinner at 6PM.  Turns out that Kentucky is only a mile away across the river, but the really sweet suspension bridge didn't have a sidewalk...bummer.

The group walking downtown...watch out Portsmith!!

The suspension bridge was sweet, but no sidewalk...

We went to a few different shops, and ended up getting some snacks at a cool Irish Pub.  I went in on some super nachos which was a good decision for sure! The chili tasted homemade, and it'll hold me over till dinner for sure.

On our way back, a few of us stopped at the public library to check it out and turns out they have internet, score! So I cranked out this post on their computer, too lazy to go get my own to do pix.

That's all for now, I'm excited for the dinner they're going to have for us.  I'm not tired at all from the riding today...and got my blog out already so idk what I'm going to do tonight, maybe read haha?