NBG Denise Sez: Hot damn. Long day (on bikes)...

Here is Day 1 from Denise Hill who is riding with Jim Muellner, David Huggins-Daines, Mike Costarell
and Nathan Shaffer from Pittsburgh to Columbus. 67 year old Jim, last year's Indy to Chicago relay
rider, the inventor of the Smart Carte shopping cart system that passengers rent to shuttle their
baggage around at airports is riding the trike, made by his new company Just Two Bikes
<http://justtwobikes.com>, that folds to fit in a suitcase. . If you want to contact them, you can
reach them on their Pocket Mailer at this address <[email protected]>. If you want to start from
the beginning and/or follow them as they move forward in the National Mayors' Ride at
<http://www.bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRide>, TransAm Vet and last year's Mayors' Ride relay rider
powerhouse, Andrew Morton, has their reports (as well as all the relay cyclists who will follow)
blogged. Point to their web site at
<http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/reports.php>. All of this excitement will
al be consummated at the second annual Santa Cruz NBG Bike Fest
<http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Festival>:
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location: Friendship Park, Jefferson Co., Ohio

hot damn. long day. Mike, David, Jim, Nathan and I started from my house at 9ish, and we rode out of
the city on some trails, some roads. fortunately, David has done this trip before, so we were in
good hands. we had to cross the West End Bridge, which is currently part of a detour for I-279. that
was a bit scary, but it was mercifully short.

the first 3 or 4 hours of riding we were fighting a head wind, which was very frustrating and I was
wishing I was down low like Jim; it all seems to go right over him on that trike. he's also
incredibly fast going downhill; I can usually pass him climbing uphill, but he just flies past me on
the decent and disappears into a little ball with orange flags flapping behind.

from then on out, the day was all about hills, no, UNDULATIONS. many of them. (Ora Sue, as much as
we miss your company, for your sake I'm glad you're missing out on these lil' "knuckles.") at the
tops though, the views of the valleys were lovely, and we were hitting them at sunset, so the
shadows were super-long across the grass.

just before our last long long gradual hill of the day we stopped for ice cream (yeay!). then
we rode up and up 4 or 500 vertical feet, which, after everything else today, didn't feel so
bad at all.

68 miles beyond my house, we climbed our last hill and found our camp in Friendship Park,
overlooking a reservoir. we scarfed down everything in sight with any caloric value and rolled into
bed (tent).

the numbers:

states crossed though: 3 (PA, WV, OH)

scary highways: 2 miles worth Dave's max speed of the day: 36 mph Jim's max speed of the day: 38 mph
bike problems: n0ne! mornings with true sunshine since DC: 1, today

off to climb more hills, Jim, Dave, Mike, Denise

ps: I should mention, our traveling 'pardner Nathan was falling behind us earlier in the day, and as
he didn't want to slow us down or be a burden, he decided it was best to turn around early
rather than later. I was sorry to see him go, but I'm glad for his sake, because the hills were
a bit unforgiving. I wanted to keep him in the daily updates and spin adventure tales about him
the whole way, like "the time Nathan found a bag of gold doubloons," or "the time he rolled over
a beehive and the bees chased him for half a mile."

and now, a word from Mike:

I had a moment that was very special today. there are images in your life that you will remember
forever; you can almost feel them being indelibly burned into your brain. I was at the back of the
group, riding W on rt 151 into Alexandria. the sun was before us, bathing everything in orange
brilliance, save for the 3 cycling shadows ahead. "this is perfect," I reflected. no sooner did I
have that thought than I saw an advertisement that sort of put a fly in the ointment: a blue and
yellow sign advertising "LIGHTENING RODS, BY DR. BOOM!"

****************There's More!!******************* We also have Jim and David's very fun accounts of
the their Day One at http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/reports.php

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--
MARTIN KRIEG: "Awake Again" Author c/o BikeRoute.com 79 & 86 TransAms, nonprofit Nat. Bicycle
Greenway CEO

Ever wanted anything so bad U were willing to die for it? Really die? By moving thru clinical death
and reversing paralysis, *I saw God* when I answered that question.