Anniversary Bike Ride

What do you do to celebrate your 20th wedding anniversary? Well if your married to my husband, you take a 50+ mile bike ride through the hilly (understatement) back roads of Indiana, on cool March day. How cool, you ask? Just take a look at our frozen bike seat and odometer.

We started our journey at 10 am this morning and the temp was about 30 degrees not including the windchill which made it seem about 10 degrees cooler. We only got about 2 miles into our ride when we stopped so that I could double glove. Thankfully the second pair of gloves helped and my fingers were able to thaw out and warm up.

It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to our destination, the Williams covered bridge which is the longest, double-span bridge in Indiana. This picture is our first rest break, about 16 miles into our ride. The reason why it took 3 1/2 hours to ride 21 miles is because those 21 miles were extremely hilly with no relief - one hill after another.

This is an example of what those hills looked like. Looks fun, huh? NOT! I don't know what was worse climbing hill upon hill or being chased by one mean dog after another. That was pretty much the extent of our first 20 miles - hills and mean dogs - thank goodness for the doggy pepper spray. And go figure, we were never chased when we were going downhill, it was always on the uphill climb when we couldn't get away fast enough.

Williams Covered Bridge

We took this picture with the camera sitting on top of our bike rack.

Kim checking the map. How many more miles to we have to go?

What do you do when the only road back home is covered in water? You go through it of course. Thankfully we made it across this little road block without getting too wet. This was the only way out, there weren't any other detours that we could take without going back the way we came.

Just when we thought we were home free, another mile down the road it was flooded again And this time there was no going through it unless you were a big truck or wanted to get really wet. We watched several cars turn around and go back the way they came. How did we get across? We climbed up the hill, on foot, with the bike, through all kinds of branches and loose rocks. We crossed over the train tracks and back down through much of the same.

Don't be fooled. It looks easier than it was.

The last 30 miles of our trip was pretty uneventful compared to the first 20 miles. The temp warmed up a little and although it still wasn't warm enough to take off some of our layers, our muscles were able to warm up enough to pick up our speed. The last 2 miles of our journey seemed the longest to me and I didn't think my butt could take another second on that bike seat, but we made it back to Spring Mill (our starting point) 8 hours later, and just in time for dinner. All in all it was a very fun day and an experience that I'll never forget.

We made it! 51.9 miles and I'm still smiling!