One of the hard things about these types of rides is that they go through beautiful areas, but the reality is, I am not actually going to take pictures while on the ride. It is too hard to break my momentum during the ride to stop and pull of the road, out of the way of other cyclists, to take pictures. I have tried in the past, carrying a camera in my jersey, but I end up with one shot of the crowd of cyclists at the lunch stop. We were able to solve this problem this time, because we had to drive up to Lancaster the day before the ride. We spent the late afternoon driving part of the ride route taking pictures. It is a really beautiful route and I am glad we had a bit of time to drive part of it.
We got started this morning around 8 a.m. under clouds that were threatening to rain. It felt a lot more like October than August. The first ten miles flew by and, for the first time ever, I willingly opted to skip a rest stop. We just had good momentum and I didn't need food or water at that point. We saw a number of Amish people headed to church in their buggies. We also saw (likely Mennonite) women on their bicycles, presumably also headed to church. We rode over the indentations in the pavement from the steel-wheeled tractors used by Mennonite farmers.
After lunch, the weather deteriorated and we were riding in heavy downpours at times. By the time we finished, we were soaked through, covered in road grime, and a little chilly. All in all, it was a good ride and we finished more than an hour faster than when we rode last year. That is mostly of an indicator of how little training we did last year.
Pictures:
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