Waiting at the start line, day 2 photo courtesy @Roadkill Warriors

My uncle and I left just before sunrise to meet his friend, Dominic, and drive to the start of the ride at Moraine State Park. My father remembers us riding rental bikes at Moraine State Park one time when we visited Pittsburgh in my childhood. This trip makes this bike ride even more full-circle than I originally thought. We waited at the start line for the mass start, something I tend not to do any more during MS rides, but something that adds to the whole experience. We biked the residential areas, small towns, and fields of rural PA to Allegheny College in Meadville. After resting and relaxing from the heat and humidity of the day, Lonnie and I took the ride's school bus ride to the Days Inn. We ate an amazing dinner at Chovy's Italian restaurant and then slept away the day. The following day we biked north to Conneaut Township Park in Ohio. The would-be flat to downhill ride challenged us with a steady and strong headwind. After hanging out on windy Lake Erie for a time, we took a slick charter shuttle bus the long drive back to Moraine State Park to finish the adventure.

Riding in rural, rolling PA. Photo courtesy @Roadkill Warriors

After chatting with folks, calculating ride averages, arrival times, and other distraction-math, and cycling meditations (updownupdownupdown), there is just enough time left over for deep thoughts. Yes, today I am sharing thee deep, deep thoughts brought on by riding Bike MS Escape to the Lake 2016. Read on if you dare:

Deep Thoughts:

All MS rides start the same; inflatable orange arch, music, cheesy DJ cheering on teams and various fundraisers. Nothing will ever beat the start line of the MS Walk in '97 in Avery Park, Corvallis, Oregon. The walk organizer works all year to put on a walk of this magnitude. Sadly, just days before the walk itself, her MS put her in the hospital with no known release date. A friend put her cell phone on speaker and the hundreds of people hushed in silence to hear her voice from her hospital bed. She gushed thanks for all the help organizing the thing. It was such a small phone, but we all heard. There was not a dry eye in sight. I tear up just thinking about it. These rides are always emotional for me. I cry every time.
I got a flat tire just 3.5 miles into the ride. As I pedaled across a bridge, I heard something metallic catch on my rear wheel. It sounded like a metal leaf got stuck in my spokes, something like that. Then I heard the air hiss out of my tire slowly and steadily until I was riding on wheel. I stopped and walked the bike to the edge of the bridge. Several SAG vehicles stopped, not just because the ride has just begun, but because several other riders coincidentally had other issues at the same time in the same place. A friendly guy stopped to lend me his air pump and then proceeded to tell me about how he delayed his honeymoon on account of this ride. He told me he and his new bride in the truck got married just last weekend. They had plans too go to Disney World, but not until after they finished their SAG duties. He used to be a cyclist himself until an injury left him on the sidelines. I thanked him for his dedication and wished him a happy honeymoon. There is an awful lot of dead opossum on this route (day 1). This is ironic because opossum play dead, but sadly the flies and other indicators told me it wasn't a game this time around.
In biking with a pack of the RoadKill Warriors, they do a call-and-reponse chant, "Roadkill"...."Warriors" whenever a roadkill is spotted. The sight of a deer lead to a long line of chanting. They'd also chant a few other phrases, "How long?"....."Too long!" or "How strong?"...."Too strong!" I am not sure which they were actually saying.. There is a strong likelihood both played in the evening.
I have never seen so many families sitting on their porches, in their yards, or on their driveways watching the cyclists go by. While this ride didn't boast a whole lot of spectators cheering us on from the roadside, the porch-side beer-drinking tea-sipping folks more than made up for it. I tried to wave at all of them!

Roadkill warriors were a super fun and friendly bunch. Apparently they partied until rider's village shut down. I could have easily hung out with all of them all day and not run out of things to talk about. Cycling! Travel! Adventure!
That guy yelling, "OH GOD! OH GOD! OW! ARGH!" Was he really suffering that much or was he the kind of guy who just needed to vocalize everything?
I didn't see any teams kitted out looking all slick and fast and pro. I only saw one pace line out of two days, and it was clearly an impromptu one of strangers
I make noise when I ride. I grunt going across railroad tracks and over lumps and bumps. So does my uncle. Maybe there is a gene linked to bike-grunting?
The guy with prosthetic legs who hand-cycled the whole ride rocked it! And, yes, he had some big guns.
Molly saved the day! Her bluetooth backpack pumped out the tunes when I needed them the most, and her conversation was great, too. As was everyone on this ride.
I kind of felt like a celebrity. My rear-facing Go Pro got a lot of attention. Countless guys came up behind me to make goofy faces, giggling. Sadly, once they got up to talk to me about it, I would have to tell them the battery was dead. Sad day. My hair also got a lot of attention. I have it died blue. I also have blue tires, blue spoke nipples, blue valve caps, blue bar tape and blue and orange MS-themed nails. I kind of matched too much.
This ride didn't have any of the signs and posters on all the porta-potties and rest areas spouting facts about MS (symptoms, research, etc.) However, several strangers struck up conversations with me about the reason they were riding. It got around that I came all the way across the country to do this ride, which is kind of a big deal. I shared with them that my mother, the reason I ride, was born and raised in Pittsburgh. And while I have no memory of living there, it was sort of a coming home for me. People talked to me about their cousins, sisters, nephews who had MS. The people I talked to all had a loved family member who had been diagnosed in the past few years. Worry and denial seemed to be a theme, and these folks just wanted to talk to someone who cared as much as they did and and knew what was going on. I told them about how much has changed since my mother has been diagnosed. Since I started riding, drugs have been developed that can prolong the relapsing-remitting stages for decades, and really, the outlook was pretty good for their loved one. I feel like I may have actually helped put a few people at ease. It was weird feeling a bit like the old sage of the ride.
I saw Amish families in traditional dress passing by on horse and buggy. I chuckled to myself; this isn't something you'd see in other states.
On day one, after drinking a lot the night before, I drank 130-some ounces of water and emptied my bladder once. On day two, after not hydrating the night before, I drank 30 ounces of water an emptied my 5 times.
Nearly every intersection had 2 volunteers, and nearly all of them stopped traffic for us riders. It was fantastic to confidently ride through so many intersections. I didn't see hardly any Harley dudes. My uncle tells me there always used to e a whole fleet of volunteers on Harley everywhere you go. I agreed, remembering these trusty HAM-radio Harley dudes from so many rides, They seem to have once swarmed the country and are not completely absent. Where did they go?
There were some really enthusiastic rest stops, but no decorations. The team tents didn't decorate, either. If the chapter asks for feedback, I may recommend that. It may be a little silly, but it is entertaining.
I got a long string of bug bites. They spanned from my left wrist, up my left arm, across my back and over to the right arm, in a perfect line. They are large, raised, and incredibly itchy.
The first day was hot and humid. Sweat dripped from me pretty much constantly for hours on end. I couldn't keep my sunscreen on. I staged ice cubes everywhere I could, and drank a lot of water. I am incredibly thankful for my cooling sun sleeves.
The second day was much cooler, but we were met with a brutal headwind that didn't let up the entire ride. It blew off of Lake Erie and just kept on blowing. When we finished, we rolled over to a park and I was able to see the light green hue of the lake in the distance. It looked like and ocean.

overnight bike storage at Allegheny College. Photo courtesy @Roadkill Warriors

Food

Food is always one of the most important things about biking.

Snacks:

cinnamon swirl bread! Yum!
The typical PB&J, bananas, clementines, fruit snacks and Quaker chewy bars (borrring).
Pickles (what?! Who wants a pickle while riding? The thought of it makes my stomach turn!)
Snyder's of Hanover snack packs (swoons. I wan to marry this man, if he were a man, and his swarm of tasty snacks)
Udi's or Udu's or Umo's snacks or something like that. They had a tasty parmesan popcorn. This was not just any popcorn, it was "tender baby kernels of popcorn". Whatever that means. Tasty stuff, though.
Lean energy bars and protein bars. I can't remember the brands, but I ate a ton and pocketed more.

Lunch Day 1:

Super delicious pasta salad. They put garbanzo beans in it. Garbanzo beans are my current obsession. They may even trump pumpkin! Some forgettable sandwich.
Roadkill Warriors tent boasted coolers overflowing with IPA's and pop. Yup. They call it pop here. Home-made burgers and dogs, veggie trays with tasty spiced dips, tasty broccoli salad, and a variety of meats and cheeses.

Dinner Day 1:

Green salad, warm table bread, seafood linguine in some sort of flavorful beer bisque type sauce. The drink special, a strawberry lemonade moscato drink in a fancy glass and floating strawberries.

Breakfast Day 2:

Forgettable breakfast buffet at Days Inn. It seemed confused. There was an uncharge, a host, and restaurant seating with napkins. But the food was pretty much the same a the complimentary breakfasts you get at any old hotel.

Lunch Day 2:

The finish line lunch had veggie cabbage tacos on corn tortillas, pulled pork sandwiches on thick buns covered with cilantro and cucumbers, and giant skewers of BBQ chicken. This was easily one of the best last-day MS ride lunches I've ever seen.

Roadkill Warriors at the Ohio border. Photo courtesy @Roadkill Warriors

Lon, me, Dom at the Ohio/Pennsylvania border on day 2. Photo courtesy Lon

Finished! Photo courtesy @Roadkill Warriors

I bought my road bike at a time before airlines charged extra fees for all checked bags. I traveled a lot that time, and invested in a hard plastic case for transporting the bike. I purchased a case that happened to be smaller than standard bike cases at the time, and much smaller than the cardboard boxes many use to fly with bikes. I regretted purchasing such a small case at first, because I have to remove the front fork and handlebars and tuck the derailer in like a dog with its tail between its legs to get the bike to fit. The box paid for itself in a matter of a few trips however when airline agents looked at the box and said, “Is that a bike? It’s so small I won’t charge you.” Later on it became, “Is that a violin? An upright bass? Did you know there is no fee for over-sized musical instruments, but the fee for sports equipment is $80?” Followed by lots of winking. Then standards changed and we had to pay for everything outside of a carry-on. It quickly became cheaper for me to rent $10,000 demo bikes for the weekend than ship my own. I haven’t traveled with my bike for many years. Sadly, all demo bikes were spoken for in all of Western Pennsylvania, so I am flying my own bike this time. I dusted the cobwebs off the ole’ case and got the bike all settled inside. It took me a long time to pack it in. Now that I am older and wiser I paid attention to keeping the greasy bits contained and the touching bits protected. Tiny scratches and dents span my entire bike now, most of which happened when the bike was in transport.
I don’t know that I’d recommend buying a hard case now to anyone traveling with a bike, now that I know there is no way the case will pay for itself. However, I am very happy to have had it for this trip! Now I wait for adventure to begin.