Day 6 - First day of rain.

I apologize for the “First” theme.  I am just experiencing a lot of firsts.  I have ridden in the rain before, but not carrying all that gear.  It really wasn’t that bad.  It didn’t come as a down pour and here in Maine it stays pretty warm when it rains.  I didn’t wear any special gear and just got wet.  Before the days ride was done, it had stopped raining and I was pretty much dry again when we arrives in camp.  My gear seemed to work well.  I have rain covers for the panniers and nothing inside was wet, so that is good.  There was a break in the rain and we hurried to get tents up before it started again.  I guess we have a hurricane coming this direction.  We are hoping it changes course and doesn’t bother us, but we will ride until we find out where it is headed.  If it does come through, we will probably hole up in a hotel until it passes.  We are in Sebago Lake, ME.  It is a beautiful spot right next to a pretty large lake.

Not much happened today.  We got up for breakfast at 6:30.  The people I am riding with are pretty anxious to get started.  They upped the time for breakfast.  I do think I could sleep in a little bit more, but you know how camping goes.  The morning comes pretty quick and it is a little more difficult to continue sleep when you are in a tent on the ground.  We had breakfast of the usual yogurt and cereal and as I was loading the bike, I noticed that the front tire was low on air and knew it must be leaking.  I guess another “first flat tire”.  It took about 20 minutes to get that fixed and I was on my way.  We traveled about 48 miles, which felt nice compared to yesterday.

I did a little experiment today.  We have some older, seasoned riders that are with the group and I was real curious how they ride during the day.  They don’t ride together and they are by no means the first to arrive back in camp, so I rode with one today.  His name is Selwyn and he is from New Zealand.  He is by far the hardest of our foreigners to understand.  It was very interesting.  Here are some of my observations.  It has been my training over the years to push that bicycle about as hard as you can.  He actually rode pretty slow.  Especially up hills.  When I was following him, I was going so slow (3 mph) it was hard to stay up at times.  His bike has lower gears than my does and it allows him to spin faster while going slower.  As for Selwyn, he wasn’t afraid to get off the bike if the hill was real steep and walk the bike up.  I have a tendency to feel that “this hill is not going to beat me” mentality and I think at times that this attitude burns my legs out.  Selwyn is 61 and is a retired crime scene investigator in NZ.  He has traveled quite extensively and has ridden in Europe, South America and of course New Zealand.  It was an enjoyable day with him and when we arrived in camp, I felt better than any ride so far.  I guess there is something to learn.

I didn’t take many pictures today because we rode inland a bit and it is pretty much just green trees.  I am going to send a picture of a Fort Knox and another good picture.  Hope all is well with each of you.