Day Twenty- Done (Over 1555 miles)

August 9th-

Well, I'm sure that you can tell by the number of miles that today was a good day for riding. The wind was at my back whispering sweet nothings in my ear all day long. The hills had all laid down for a day long nap. The sun was playing hide and seek behind the clouds. Who could ask for anything more?

I enjoyed the beautiful skies for hours as I rode an average of 15 MPH. I had promised myself that I wouldn't stop in any towns for more than a couple minutes so that I could get as far as possible. I still had enough time to let them know what I was doing though.

All the towns were small. As a matter of fact, one of the towns had a population of 80. Guess what? That didn't stop them from having a police car. I got a kick out of that.

Right as I decided not to look at the odometer/speedometer to encourage a faster pace, I saw a giant tower (see picture). Now, some of you may know that I'm afraid of heights. So, today I decided to test my fears. I hate fears. I rode over to the "tower" on a pebble and rock county road. Little did I know that the tower belonged to TV station 26. It was Sunday, so they were closed.

That never stopped a rebel like me from accomplishing my mini-goals. I was going to conquer my fear of heights. Well, I parked my bike, jumped the barbed wire fence (Don't tell anyone!), ascended the ladder to the roof, and then walked the plank to the base of the tower. I put everything but my camera down and started to climb. Rung after rung, my nerves started to poke me. My muscles grew weak from the lifting for minutes after minutes. I didn't realize how hard it was to climb a tower. I kept climbing until I thought I would be able to get a great panoramic shot with my camera. I must've been 200 rungs up, when I was satisfied. Nervously satisfied. I hope you like the picture (only one of the 8 panorama).

I carefully climbed back down, scraping both elbows just once. I saddled up and headed down the road; accomplished!

As I rode, I saw a sign for a Holiday Inn Express. I had travelled over fifty miles at that point, and the sign said the hotel was 55 miles ahead. Hmmm... "I can do that," I thought to myself. Thanks to all the people that helped me on the 131 mile day, I knew I could. So, I called my mom to see if she could get me a sweet deal at the hotel.

I rode like I stole something. I rode like I was in East Cleveland at night. I rode like I wanted to sleep in a soft bed with my own shower nearby. I rode.

As I got closer, I got in touch with my mom and she came through. She talked with Mary (correct me if I'm wrong, I was out of it), who was working the front desk, and got me the employee's rate for the night. I rode faster.

I got there a little after ten o'clock and checked into my room. I washed my laundry, ate some food, showered, studied my maps over and again, then called it a night. I had to get up early for my free breakfast and to thank Collete (the manager who wasn't going to yell at Mary for helping me out).

Daily Lesson: There are two great motivators; People and absence of people. (Not in this case, but sometimes it takes people leaving us for us to finally do something right.)

Donate to eradicate Polio at http://www.rotary.org/en/endpolio/Pages/ridefault.aspx