Revisions From The Road

Today was day two of a two-day ride from Kitty Hawk to Greenville. Yesterday’s very favourable wind made short work of Kitty Hawk to Plymouth and meant today would be a relatively short ride of about 85 km. The wind was noticeably absent today but the terrain was again “mostly flat” (as per Google) so the riding was pretty easy.
I wasn’t exactly racing out the door this morning. That said, I still managed to get on the road before 10:00. Before leaving town, I attempted a quick detour to where I thought there was a local bike shop – it turns out there wasn’t one. So, with my rear wheel in a functional position, I pedalled on down the road hoping for the best. It still didn’t feel right but I hoped it would get me to a bike shop in Greenville tomorrow. Assuming I would make it to Greenville today. Spoiler Alert: I did.

In the end, the biggest adventure of the day didn’t come from any bicycle issues but instead it was some freelance work interrupting an otherwise very nice ride. Did I mention it was 26 degrees today (ie. 79F)? During one of my many map checks this morning I received an e-mail about making some changes to the videos I worked on last week while in Chesapeake. This could be tricky from the road. I, of course, accepted this as nothing more than a challenge!

The changes in question hadn’t been sent to me yet so I picked up the pace under the assumption that there was a good chance I could make it to Greenville (and a WiFi source) before said changes made it to my Inbox. It was an accurate assumption as I arrived in Greenville around 2:00 – about the same time I received the revisions. Now all I had to do was find a WiFi connection.

A check of my GPS revealed a Wendy’s about 6 km away. Perfect. I could do some work while enjoying a chocolate Frosty. That plan came to a crashing halt when I arrived at said Wendy’s only to find it closed. Permanently. How sad. Oh well, no time for grieving. There was a backup plan and, as usual, it included another stop at Subway.

The next three hours were spent at Subway eating a meatball sub and working on the revisions. Well … the “eating a meatball sub” aspect only took a few minutes. The revisions took a little longer than expected and the WiFi wasn’t the fastest but by 5:00 I had finished most of what I needed to do.

With business taken care of, I set off down the road towards Njeri’s place – Njeri being the friend of a friend that had offered to put me up for the night. By 6:00 I had met Njeri (who, by the way, is incredibly nice), settled into my room, taken a much needed shower (the warm weather made this a very sweaty day), and was getting ready to eat a home cooked meal prepared by Njeri. She made butter chicken, rice, and green beans with peppers. It was excellent. The peppers almost didn’t happen as they came out of what could be the most tightly sealed jar ever. Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this but it took the two of us to actually get it open. Humans 1, Jar 0.

Today’s Totals:
Distance travelled: 86.26 km
Time on bike: 3:27:02
Maximum speed: 38.38 km/h
Average speed: 24.99 km/h