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Kingston
This sign was right at the bottom of a hill :( Way to kill our momentum City of Kingston! Well, we made it to Kingston in two days! As the title suggests, it didn't come at no cost though, our butts are really sore. Guess that's what we get for the shameful amount of training we did, but hey, after getting to Kingston in two days, who's complaining?
We started today off right: we had peanut butter and honey sandwiches in our room before leaving this morning. Then we started our day off right: we're heading east, and the hotel was on the south side of the street. Then we started our day off right: with a McDonalds (second) breakfast in Trenton, about an hour or so into our journey.
The morning was fantastic, the kilometres were just flying by, and we were zooming through the relatively flat terrain at an average speed of well over 20 km/h. We were also making sure to stop frequently for quick snack breaks, and reapplications of sunscreen (despite which we still both have some well sunned faces, and one heat rash between the two of us). Eric sweats like a...well like a guy who sweats a lot who happens to be under the beating sun with no cloud cover, little shade, and is working hard on a bike for 5 plus hours a day, and in trying to wipe said sweat off his face, the sunscreen often comes with.
Anyway, after lunch, things went a little down hill, which is ironic because that's actually when things started to get a lot more up-hill. We slowed down some as our muscle fatigue started to kick in, and as the sun really hit full stride and beat down hard, and especially as the terrain started to become really hilly.
Right at Napanee, there is a really awful hill on Hwy 2, just past a skate park. Therese remembered it well from her (3-day) bike trip to Kingston last summer, and it didn't disappoint! It is fairly long, but really steep. At the top (end) of the hill we were really tired, and stopped at a convenience store for a washroom and snack break. We also bought a COLD powerade, which was heavenly since most of our water was luke-warm at that point. We also had a nice long rest, and asked to refill our water-bottles from the sink before leaving. We assumed this would not be a problem, so Eric finished off one of the half-full bottles before going in to ask, which made it an unfortunate turn of events to find out that tap water in Napanee is (apparently) not really clean enough to drink. Normally we would both take our chances with "unclean" water, but since there is nowhere to relieve an upset stomach while on a bike, we opted for buying some cold water from the fridge instead. Then we were back on our way.
Things were slower for much of the rest of the afternoon, and about an hour outside of Kingston we stopped for a washroom and snack break at a fire hall, and met some nice fire-fighters who seemed quite impressed with our journey (they were impressed with our journey up to that point, it got even better when we told them our plans for the future!), and who warned us about another really bad hill just outside of Kingston.
Then we were off, and sure enough it wasn't long before we found the hill in question: in contrast to the Napanee hill, this one was fairly steep, but really long! We planned to take a break at the top, but when we got there we both decided we would rather just press on and arrive as soon as possible, than wait and catch our breath, so we pushed hard right to the residences. Now we're staying in the Queen's residences for the night, and weather permitting we'll be off bright and early again tomorrow morning. In the mean time, our butts, and muscles are really sore, and we're a bit fatigued, so early to bed it is. Did I mention our butts are sore? In fact, they hurt so much that we even considered taking a picture of them to post, just so you could all see the sore, red, painful things they are. But then we remembered that our moms read this. By the way, thanks for the comments moms, and everyone else, they are a treat for us to read in the evenings.
Kingston in 2? Check! Montreal in 5? Only time will tell...
Some fun statistics for you (and for us 😊 ).
Departure time: 8:00 am (Not too bad, but later than we'd like, earlier tomorrow we hope)
Arrival time: 4:00 pm (We're not rounding these, really!)
Total time on bike: 5h 17m (less breaks than yesterday)
Total distance travelled: 114.38 km (a pretty strong second day if we may say so ourselves)
Average speed: 21.6 km/h (considering all the long uphills, we're ecstatic)
Max speed: 43.3 km/h (getting tired of us commenting after every stat yet?)
Number of things fallen off bike while riding: 2 (I guess this needs a story, so see below)
Story: Somewhere in the middle of an annoying (but not terrible) uphill, Therese's sun glasses fell off her bike. Well technically they were kept in her shirt, not her bike, but close enough. She had not been wearing them during this stretch to avoid a sun-glasses tan as funny as Eric's, and because the sun wasn't directly in front of us. Though a lens popped out in the fall, we were able to recover the glasses with no permanent damage. Later, just after the fire hall, Therese forgot to put her helmet and gloves back on. Thankfully, she only got about 10m before they fell off their resting place on the back of her bike, and though she didn't notice immediately, Eric quickly brought the situation to her attention. Again everything was recovered with no problems. Her response? "I knew I felt too cool." I guess it's lucky that our normal routine has Therese in the front and Eric in the back.
Ok, that's all for now. Hope you all enjoy. SLEEEEEEEEEP.
- E an T
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Shira Hart
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sore bums amuse
You are very funny bloggers. It is great fun to read about your adventures. Congrats on kingston in 2, we are all impressed. Rachel has also been enjoying reading your blog. Take care of that heat rash and sunglass tan, Eric!! I bought deck furniture today! I found stuff on sale at Walmart that I really like and the gift money covered it all. It is on a really good sale because they are clearing all their summer stuff out and starting their back to school sales next week. Gross. I need to use Nana Lill's van to pick up the furniture tomorrow; it won't fit in a Mazda. But, I did bring home a reclining chair today and it is very comfortable. Wish me luck assembling everything. Alfie did not get out at all today. Yay. Sleep well, good luck tomorrow, it is supposed to be hot, at least in TO. Lots of love, Shira/mom