Day 3 of the Tour de Cure

Start	Finish	Distance
Biddeford, ME	North Conway, NH	70 miles

OK, we can stick a fork in Day 3, because it's now done. Official tally was 79 miles.

I had a lot of random thoughts today. Because this was the first day in which the 2-day riders weren't with us, there were fewer people (I think on the order of 50 are left) so I had long stretches during which I was biking alone. From a terrain point of view, this is perfect, classic, New England biking. Farm, cows, streams, that kind of thing. It's the kind of scenery that makes me think that I could so live in some little place out in the middle of nowhere like this. I wonder how quickly I would go crazy.

One thing I realized, biking alone, is that I really have to get one of those mirror things that bikers use for seeing what's coming up from behind. Not that I much care what's coming up from behind, but because I appear to lapse into this "zone" while I'm riding where thoughts and conversations and lyrics from really old songs start going around in my head, and then when someone comes up from behind, we have a conversation that goes kind of like this:

Innocent person approaching: "Hi! How's it going? Having a good ride?"
Me: "Aaaaah! Oh my god! What the hell are you doing there? Are you trying to kill me?"

And then it takes like 10 minutes for my heart rate to return to normal. I'm also a perfect target for those people who feel that, for some reason, it's funny to yell random stuff out of car windows at people on bikes. I must jump 8 feet off my bike, which I'm sure is a good show for them. So, as I said, I think I need one of those little mirrors.

Another thing I realized is that a single word can make a huge difference. Compare the following two phrases:

Entering White Mountain Region (an actual sign seen on today's ride)
Entering White Mountain Creamery (a sign not seen today)

It's amazing how different those two things can be. As a tip for you younger riders out there, be aware that if you have the choice to either bike in the White Mountain Region, or to go to White Mountain Creamery, you should definitely choose the latter.

I was also comparing this third day of riding to the last time that I rode for three days straight. That was the Tri-State Trek of a few years ago. Some of you might remember the story of that day, or actually of the end of Day 2 of that ride, which involved "The Fall". As I said above, I relish the chance to pass on a little of my accumulated biking knowledge to new or younger riders, and so I will in this case. It turns out that, from a purely physical point of view, if you have the chance to ride on Day 3 with (a) blood spurting from your left knee, blood oozing from your left arm, and a nearly immobile left shoulder due to a quick dislocation during the fall, or (b) none of those problems, I highly recommend that you choose (b). Again, no charge for this advice. You're welcome.

During the day today we rode through a town in Maine, I think, called Limerick. So I have composed this little limerick for all of you as a bit of an added bonus for your sponsorship dollars:

I once rode the New England Classic,
Through lands that were new, and Jurassic,
I ate so much food,
And I'm now in the mood,
To go out and eat a Vlasic.

Fine, yes, it sucks. But first of all, you try rhyming something with "classic". And second of all, it shows a lot of nerve for you to complain about this poem, when I don't think that many of you have written a poem for me. In fact, I would say that the overlap of people reading this blog and people who have written me a poem is very small indeed. So before you continue ragging on this poem, please send me your own entry, and then we'll continue this discussion.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention one thing about today. Let's see, how to put this in the best light? I got to wear my new rain jacket! It kind of poured on me for about 10 minutes, so not too bad, but enough to get me completely soaked (except for the rain jacket part). Worst thing about riding in the rain: It's very uncomfortable and kind of scary since the road is slick. Best thing about riding in the rain: When your shoes get full of water, your feet actually stay nice and cool. And I'm not actually kidding about that. There must be some kind of an invention around that recognition.

If any of you have been trying to follow along with the agenda, and I'm sure some of you must be doing that, you may have been confused about tomorrow. It says that we end in Norwich VT, which makes no sense. It turns out that we end at Norwich University, which is in Northfield, VT. When the group of us at the front today finished, the guy driving the truck told us that "we'll fix your asses tomorrow. We have a century with a mountain range in the middle." So tomorrow will be a day to look forward to.

I will see you then.

A few random thoughts:

Favorite T-shirt so far: On a pretty overweight guy, stretched across his stomach are the words "I Beat Anorexia".
Biggest humor disconnect: On the first day of the ride they had that yellow, lemon-lime Gatorade, and on the second day it was the blue stuff, whatever flavor that is. I was filling my water bottle when a guy said "oh, does this mean I have to empty out my Gatorade from yesterday?" So I said "Definitely. You know if you mix Gatorade flavors you will wake up with a big headache." And this woman said "Really?". I said "No, I was just kidding, like how you aren't supposed to mix beer and wine." And she said "oh, well I don't drink either."
Lesson learned: If you get a group of people on a bike ride together, and put them into, say, a college lounge with a TV, there are only 2 things they can agree to watch. (1) The movie Breaking Away, and (2) the Tour de France. But if there is, say, a 50 minute gap between the ending of Breaking Away and the start of the Tour coverage, they will go around and around and around the channels, but they will not be able to agree on a thing. (At least I don't think they will. It was even too much for me to take, so I left.) I mean really, the original Star Trek was even on. What more could they have been looking for?
Dining Halls: For anyone looking at colleges and planning to base a decision only, or even primarily, on the dining hall, I can report that the UNH dining hall is better than the UNE dining hall. Hope that helps make that big college decision for someone.
Lodging: For anyone trying to decide between staying at, say, the Attitash Grand Summit Resort, and some random college dorm (like, say, UNE or UNH), I am going to have to tilt in favor of the Resort.

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