May 25, 2003
The bike took good care of us today. There were no flats, and our only problem was throwing the chain during one shift. I think the front derailleur is adjusted out too far. Ron will work on it in the morning.
The Team is doing well, but we are getting a little tired, and the rest day on Tuesday will be welcome. We rode strongly today, but had to keep at it.
We moved from Gallipolis to Portsmouth, OH today – about 96 miles, and it was a good ride. We really didn’t see much that was new, and didn’t spend a lot of time on the river, since after a hard day yesterday, we didn’t want to do much in the way of climbing. Since the ride was uneventful, we will tell you about some observations.
On the subject of dogs, we have drawn some conclusions. There are three kinds of dogs: mean ones that are generally tied up, those that would like to be mean, but don’t have the heart (they just chase you for a bit, and then give up.), and those that like to race. The mean ones that are tied up act very vicious, and seem to be willing to break their necks to get at us. The mean wannabees just chase after you until they run out of steam, and give up. The ones that like to race to just that – they take off, and are not happy until they are ahead of the bike. There was a little dog yesterday, that beat us badly. He then proceeded to lie around on his back and get himself all dirty while we were filling our water bottles. We have not been seriously threatened so far on the trip by mean dogs, but they have gotten our attention a few times.
Towns on the river are interesting. They typically are very long – the river is on one side, and hills tend to be on the other. The north end of town appears to be inhabited by the economically challenged, while the south end of town is home to the more well to do. Once you are out of the towns, and riding along the river, there is no pattern to housing. You can have a shack next to a mansion, and see a house trailer (the PC term is Manufactured Housing) in the midst of many nice homes. How to figure?
Ron just learned that his sister will meet the Team in Covington, KY on the rest day. It will be fun to see someone we know.
We are now across the river from Kentucky – a new state for us. We had great weather today with sun and nice temperatures for most of the day. We had a headwind early, and then it shifted to a combination of helping side wind and tailwind. It really helped our speed.
Ron
A Note from LaValle
I have taken most of the photos used on Biking the Rivers and most of them have been taken while the tandem is moving. I've also figured a way to add photos to the daily journal page without disrupting the site. Many thanks go to Steve Tapia who has spent long hours developing and then changing the site for us. He has made it very easy for me to go in and update nightly. The only problem is that it is time consuming and as a result I haven't had much time to add my thoughts to the record of our journey. The first week review is now up and I'm still working on the second. Thank you all for following us and our travel. Please feel free to e-mail us at bikingtherivers@aol.com. There's a link on our home page. Hamba kahle!
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