day 2 and 3... now stop yelling at me john.

As per John, I'm not allowed to continue on this journey unless I make another blog entry. Therefore I decided to do a semi-brief recap on our Saturday and Sunday adventures. Between all four of us, you probably have a good idea of how things are going on this trip. Saturday turned out to be a much better day than Friday. We had glorious weather, sunshine lasted throughout our entire ride. We were faced with a TON of hills, but none were as intense as day 1 in my opinion (or maybe it was the fact that Billy suggested we switch bikes...and by suggested I mean forced.)

We traveled along the main roads until we eventually met up with a bike trail somewhere along route 9. About midway through the ride, we came to a 1/2 mile downhill slope which coincidentally ended at a hotdog vendor. If you also read johns blog, this is where the bet came into play. He ate two hotdogs, Corrao ate one, and I had... a bun. It was deee-lish. We continued on the bike route until we hit a Panera where I could actually eat something substantial. After we stuffed our faces with breadbowls and paninis... served by an all-time great DAN. Capitalized for emphasis because you can't just say his name, you have to shout it.

Paneras was followed by a little cat nap in the parking lot of Raymore and Flannagan...damn food comas. We saddled up and continued biking until we hit Marist. We hacked into their computers (thanks Brian, wherever you are) and made some blog entries. John and Timy went ahead because apparently I type slower than everyone else. We eventually met up with Timy for some unexpected Irish car bombs, but not before I took a picture flipping off FDR's billboard at the top of a ridiculous hill. Our night ended at a lovely hotel with greasy italian food.

I woke up the next morning to find Billy snoring, John sprawled out across his queen-sized bed alone, and Tim wrapped in a sheet on the floor. Apparently no one had a good night's sleep. We all met up at the coffeehouse for some continentals. We soon discovered that John had made friends with several 70-year-old ladies. They continued to talk about him long after he left and went back to the room.

After breakfast we went back to the room, packed and loaded up the bikes, had a stretch session, hopped on our bikes and took off. It rained for a chunk of the day, but all of our spirits remained high. It seemed like one thing after another was going wrong, but something would just come around to somehow make things right again. First was Billy's pedal falling off. We asked a carpenter for some tools to fix it, but he used to own the largest bike shop in Ohio or something so he not only had the parts to replace it, but also adjusted our seats and filled our tires with air. (and I'll point out that Billy insanely rode nearly 5 miles with one pedal until we found this guy... crazy tree trunk legs.)

Then Billy's gears stopped shifting midway up the largest hill we'd have to ride up. As Billy pretended he knew how to fix it on the side of the road, a gentleman stopped in his car alongside, told us he was a bike mechanic and continued to fix not just the gears, but the chain and handlebars as well.

The day went on in this manner until we reached our lunchtime spot. Lunch was probably my favorite time of this day. We attempted to stop for lunch at a restaurant in Pine Hills everyone loved on last year's trip but they were closed. Instead we somehow stumbled into a place called backyard garden where we quickly made friends with the locals, drank some beer, ate some food that we probably shouldn't have, and watched some of the yankee game. I felt like we were on vacation, and the boys pointed out that this was the first time they legitimately didn't want to leave and get back on the road.

Our day ended when we arrived at the Wake Robin Inn, where I think I fell in love. It's a quaint hotel that used to be a boarding school for girls. The decor was adoreable, and everywhere you looked, there was a piece of thier history. Plus, there was an Irish bar with burbon gallore, kingsized bed in my room (compared to the two twin beds for john and timy), a computer for more blogging, and unlimited bottles of water for guests. Our night ended with ordering more italian delivery for dinner.

As I reflect on this day, I am personally proud because it was the first day I was able to ride the entire way without walking up any hills. Sure my legs were on fire and my feet were numb... but my self-satisfaction level was high and that's what really counts here.

And now as we sit here watching country music videos, getting psyched up for today's journey, John just agreed that next year he will do this trip in a cow outfit. I'm holding him to it. It's time we get mooooving.