And Then We Were Cold

Friday morning we woke to the sounds of birds' morning songs.

How lovely...until I started to cook pancakes.

It was my first time using the stove to cook anything...and there is definitely a learning curve.

Incidentally, cooking outside with no heat source (the camping stove doesn't count) when the temperature is in the 30s is....NOT FUN.

The pancakes were good, but I only began to appreciate their qualities much later, after my hands had thawed, as leftovers.

As we journeyed through Albion we encountered a couple canal workers testing a lift bridge...

We stopped and chatted with one for a while...or should I say, listened for a while...

We learned quite a bit of history and random trivia about the canal.

Around 5:00 we reached my aunt's house...tired and sore.

We rode 90 miles those first two days!

Saturday, the day we rested, we felt horrible.

Two big, important lessons I learned - drink more than you think you should, and eat more than you think you need!

After I ate more food than seemed humanly possible and drank a lot, too, my headache and stomachache faded into oblivion.

The trip home on Sunday was much faster and more comfortable than our out-bound one.

The temperature was at least 10 degrees warmer, and we were stronger.

We subtracted 4 miles by being dropped off on the canal path instead of riding to it...

I don't really like having my bicycle piled and strapped into the back of a pickup....it seems disrespectful in a way...but we didn't have to ride through city traffic, and that was wonderful!

On the way home we stopped and took a look at the road that goes under the canal...

and took a picture of one of the many creeks that flows under it...

and marveled at the upside-down railroad bridge....

It was made that way to make it impossible for masted ships to sail up the canal.  The train company wanted the business...

I used my little stove one more time...to make Spanish beans and rice for dinner.

It tasted good, but I still have to perfect the use of the camp stove...

Our last night camping was nice...

There was rain in the forecast, but none showed up, thankfully!

During the trip home my right knee started to bother me.

Toward the end of the day it became difficult to keep pedaling my heavily loaded bike.

We did get home early...about 1:00pm, but my knee hurt so bad after I got off the bicycle.  I think it was an overuse injury -patellar tendonitis.  Now I'm icing it a lot and resting it as much as possible.  My dad adjusted my saddle more precisely, so I'm praying and hoping I'll be ready to ride to PA by May...

We all, Mom, sis, and I, had a lot of fun on this little trip.  It was great connecting with relatives we don't see often, and we will joke about and remember this trip for a long time.  We laughed a lot, and survived the damp, freezing cold morning together.  If we do it again...they will be carrying their stuff, though...carrying the supplies for three people was more than I want to do again...