Shuffling into Buffalo

What a day!  This was a gorgeous 92 mile ride with great views of Lake Erie.



Riding past vineyards, 

along wide shoulders and smooth pavement with a breath of tailwind moving us along.  Even the traffic was pretty chill for a Friday.   We crossed over into our 12th state - just three more to go  


At the second SAG we stopped at a fantastic ice cream shack (Nick Charlaps 11/10 would recommend).  I tucked into a “small” cone with three scoops of cookie dough and then we soft pedaled our way into Buffalo.   I’m pretty sure I was calorie positive for the last 22 miles…

My legs were fresh and strong after the rest day.  The weather was perfect.   And I was riding with great people.   You can’t ask for much more on a summer day…


And now, with just seven days left in the tour, it is time for the 2024 Ride Across America Most Valuable Gear Awards.   The rules of the game here are that the gear has to be valuable but non-essential. Obviously without the bike and the biking helmet you can’t ride. So those don’t count.

First up…

MVG Honorable Mentions…

Cue Sheet Clips…for when your Ride computer spazzes out and tells you that the finish line is halfway through the route in a stand of trees 2 miles from the road.


Epic Ride Weather …aka “the anxiety app”  you put in your route, start time, and speed, and it tells you what’s going to happen with wind and precipitation along the route. You’d think this would be at the top of the list for most valuable. But in fact, we spent most of our time agonizing over wind directions and how miserable we’d be the next day. Which, when you don’t have a choice of the route or whether to get from point A to point B, isn’t all that helpful. Hence the anxiety app. 



Apple Watch…  was helpful early on for monitoring heart rate on some of the steep climbs and making sure I stayed under control. But demerit for not having enough battery life for a six hour ride. And then not saving any of the data if the battery died before the end of the ride.  Do better Apple…garmin watches have like 5x your battery life  



Hypervolt Massage Gun.   Late entry into the MVG sweepstakes, having arrived in Indianapolis. (Thanks Tee!) Super helpful for the sore quads and calves. Demerit for weighing too much to get in under my 30 pound weight limit for earlier in the ride.When I really really really needed it and Paula was weighing bags…



Tomorrow … the MVG countdown begins with big number 7!














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