5/28/19

After the tire dip and numerous pictures we took off in groups of 3 or 4 riders so we wouldn’t block traffic. Of course that didn’t work as well as planned because you could have slower riders ahead of faster riders so as you can imagine we had the faster riders passing the slower riders and at times we could have 6 to 8 riders together.  One thing that did help get us spread out were the hills.

The hills weren’t very high but they were fairly steep and since I didn’t train enough I suffered.  Plus, I have a new bike I had to work on my gear ratios.  I rode with Ed Carl for the third year in a row and he rode the last 6 days of the Atlantic Coast ride, he was a lot stronger than I was.

At our first rest stop in Ellsworth Maine we stopped at the Flexit Café and Bakery at 192 Main Street.  They had great coffee as the coffee expert (Ed) explained.  When he ordered they asked him how dark he wanted his coffee.  I will attest that the pastry was excellent.

The owner came and asked us about our ride.  It turned our he has two close friends that have MS so he wanted to get some pictures so he could post them and our story on his website.  He was surprised how big on group we had so he spent time get updates from some more of our riders and leaders.