oofta

What an interesting few days it's been...
there's been...
-pea soup fog
-becoming one with my bike
- the first on-the-road fight
-and an awesome group of teens biking from Eugene to San Francisco!

The pea soup fog was outside of Charleston. We had spent our rest day there, mostly hiding in the tent in our long underwear and wool socks, trying to keep warm. It was mid-50s, gloomy and kind-of raining by the end of the night. And that semi rain and fog didn't lift when the sun came up!

As we started our first climb of the day, the air got progressively colder and the fog got progressively thicker. Also, I feel the need to mention that we were on Seven Devil's Road. By the time we climbed the 4th hill, I figured out why it's called Seven Devil's Road. And I didn't like it one bit! The fog had enveloped the world completely,for all we could tell. It was equal parts creepy and cool, with more than a little unnerving thrown in. Needless to say, I was a whole lot of glad to be away from the devils!

I had decided a few days ago that I wanted to get some clips for my bike. I've heard all about how they make for more efficient biking, wastes less energy, allows you to engage more muscle groups, that sort of thing. So I decided to become one with my bike. It didn't go so well. The test rides were just fine! But the next morning...I didn't even make it out of the campsite before I was staring at the sky and feeling 5years old again. But I kept on keeping on and things went much smoother...fir about 16 miles.

And then we encountered a hill.

I got mostly up the hill and just wanted to stop for a moment for a drink of water. I git my right foot out just fine. But in the process of getting my left foot out, I lost my balance. My bike pulled me down. And this time, my foot stayed caught in the clip, resulting in a leg twisted at a weird angle...And a Charlie horse. in my butt. Ever had a glute muscle Charlie horse? If you haven't, I hope you never do. It's a horrible feeling, especially when there's still 17 miles to go...

So thanks to the cramped butt muscle, I woke up cranky and frustrated this morning. My right clip was being sticky and I was having a hard time getting my foot free. Zac loosened it a bit, but it still wasn't cooperating. So when we were starting our 600ft climb and I once again crashed and burned, I absolutely lost it. I was frustrated beyond belief, sore, and once again (literally) lying on the side of the road crying because I couldn't get out of my clips.

And Zac was losing his patience too. We tend to feed off each others moods, for better or worse. He had spent half the day and night yesterday dealing with cranky frustrated Lindsay, and was running out of positivity. I'll spare you the details of the fight that ensued, but the end result was Zac going teacher mode on me when I needed caring boyfriend mode (though in his defense, I *was* kind of acting like one of his students...), and me glaring at him and telling him I was mad at him and was just gonna be mad at him for a while.

(But flying down a mountainside and being greeted at the bottom with a gorgeous ocean view is good for cooling down tempers!)

Around lunch time, we ran into a group of cyclists also headed to San Francisco! A group of eleven teens from all over, including Italy, going from Eugene to San Fran in 20 DAYS. At the peak of their trip, they'll be pulling 60 mile days! Color me impressed...we max out between 40 and 50! Turns out we were all headed to the same campsite...they pulled in just after I got a wonderfully warm shower. So after dinner I decided to track them down for a group picture, cause they're awesome and I wanted a picture to go with the story!

(If you're reading this - GOOD LUCK!! I hope we'll run into you again...you guys made a rough day better for me. Happy trails!)