The First Real Adventure

Here's what happened on the trip to Carlisle this week:

I left my apartment here in Hanover, PA around 10 am on Monday and pedaled to McSherrystown where the directions started. The first half of the trip went about as well as could be expected and I arrived in York Springs (roughly halfway there) around noon. I contacted my host (Bill; his wife Gerri was unable to join us on the ride there) who was planning to meet me there and left a message detailing where I was on the list of directions. We met up on Whiskey Springs Rd. which is a bit farther than halfway there and continued on together. Shortly after meeting up, though, the first serious hills began. Towards the high point of the ride, I was heading up a hill when my legs simply would not continue on. I didn't have time to unclip my shoes and fell over into a grassy patch on the side of the road. The pain wasn't so bad but the swelling alarmed me. My knee had struck the bike as I went down and when I next looked at it, it was roughly the size of a nectarine. I hadn't ever seen something swell so large or so quickly and seriously thought my bone must have popped out of joint. But we took a break and then continued on. Upon arriving at my hosts' house, we put an ice pack on it and relaxed with some cold tea and water. I went out to run an errand with Bill and he gave me a brief tour of Carlisle. I got to see Dickinson College (where I'd wanted to go when I was a wee high school student) and Dickinson Law School. Upon returning home, Bill and Gerri showed me a slideshow of their cycling tour of Europe and shared a couple of their stories from the road. Then we sat down to a delicious dinner of ribs from the crockpot and a couple of sides. Afterwards, I took a soak in their hot tub to further help my knee recover for the trip back tomorrow. Lastly, I went to bed after watching a couple of episodes of Law and Order: SVU with Bill.

Tuesday morning followed a less than perfect night's sleep but I knew I had to hit the road home. My knee was still aching a bit but feels able to handle a little bit of riding. We ate a light breakfast of cereal, muffins and orange juice. Then the first bad omen... I discovered that one of my tires had gone flat and needed a new inner tube. Note to self: always bring a tube and pump with you on the road! Had I gotten a ways before finding this out my only plan was to call someone for help. Not a very good plan! Bill had a tube handy and showed me how to replace it. I'll have to practice it some more before I get it down but I have a rough idea of what to do now. Then I set out. Which leads me to mistake #2: Instead of humbly confessing to Bill that my sense of direction is unspeakably bad, I cleverly decided to try mentally reversing the directions he'd given me (turning rights to lefts and lefts to rights). It's not always that straightforward, though! Anyway, my first wrong turn happened about 10 minutes into the trip home and I rode for a while without realizing I'd missed where I was supposed to turn. Fast forward an hour and a half and I rode roughly 6 miles IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!!! By this point, I was pretty frustrated with myself and losing my calm, cool collectedness. After traversing the high hills (walking for a little while), I was getting worn down and the clock had been ticking. Add another hour and a half and I was just too exhausted to continue mentally reversing the directions and I simply told Google maps to take me to Hanover, PA. It sent me careening through this unnamed, unpaved road that literally runs between cornfields on someone's farm. I was running low on water at this point and my cell phone was down to the last 20% or thereabouts. I just kept on keeping on though and decided that steady perseverance would win the day. Then Google maps threw a wrench in the works. Some of the road names were confused and it was sending me in two different directions. I rode for a little while and it sent me back the way I came. I got there and it told me to return to where I just checked a few minutes ago. At this point I was down to 1% battery and I decided to just ride straight on this one road until I get to some area that Google says I will reach. I didn't reach it despite Google's affirmations that I'd be there in a matter of minutes. I was completely out of water. 1% of battery was still hanging on and I decide to call my close friend and mentor, Bruce Schwarz. I prayed that he would answer his phone (he often isn't able to). He answered. I shared my predicament, all the time praying that my cell wouldn't die. He said he'd look up where I was on his GPS, call me back and give me some directions. I told him that if I didn't answer his call it's because my cell died. A few minutes passed and his call came in telling me that I was literally just about 3 miles from McSherrystown (a small village immediately next to Hanover). I headed south to McSherrystown and reached the Subway near Food Lion and just vegetated with about 5 cups of ice water and a foot long Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub. But I couldn't move any further. I just had no gumption to continue. I called Bruce again and explained that I had nothing left in me and I could barely move. I'd been pedaling the majority of the past 6 hours using my left leg so as not to strain my right one with the injury. I was picked up about 6:30 and made it home after over 7 hours on the road and at least 50 miles under my belt.

Lessons learned:

1) Know your limits. I should have unclipped before my leg gave out on the way there and I took that blow to the knee.

2) Know how to change a flat tire on your next major cycling trip. This one was just stupid. I should have thought about the possibility of getting a flat.

3) Admit your weaknesses. I should not have set off to mentally reverse the directions Bill gave me but should have asked for him to print off reverse directions for me to follow.

4) Keep on keeping on. I did this one well. After a while of riding on Tuesday, I gave myself a pep talk saying "Wes, don't lose your cool and become upset when you make mistakes. Focus your energies on keeping going." And that's just what I did.

5) It's okay to ask strangers for help. Had Bruce not answered his phone, I would have gone to someone's house and explained my situation to them and asked if they could give me some water and either directions or some phone charging time.

So that's it. With every major accomplishment there will always be stories of hardship, frustration and inconvenience. This is just one of those. And the lessons I learned will be invaluable to me on future rides. I'm not at all discouraged now. Just a little bit more aware of what to expect.