Monday, July 11, 2011

SnR UGRR Tour 2011 ~ July 3 Ride Day 18

SnR UGRR Tour 2011 ~ July 3 Ride Day 18

Maysville, KY to Germantown, KY

Day of Devastation

The ride out of Maysville, KY was an easy one. The first hill was 150ft ahead of us as it rose above the OhiTucky River. Those from Kentucky say they own the river from their side to the banks of the other side. The same is said of the Ohioans, so I just call it Ohi-tucky. The humidity was very high and the temperature around 78*; you would start sweating just looking at someone else sweat.

The night's sleep was great. There's nothing like camping out when there's no rain. We were still beaming from the previous night's visit with Jerry Gore and the viewing of his artifacts of slavery, tales of his family and the tour of the slave quarters below his home. This made us excited to see other important sites along the route; the Rankin House, city of Ripley, etc.

James and Katie randomly donated to us at River City Park. Donnie gave us free breakfast and another person, Tammy Thomas, while seeing us on the road stopped to give us a small donation. We are so very fortunate. Breakfast and lunch were paid for.

This is the day that almost ended the tour for 5 of the riders: Chris, Itza, Kyvon, Mahlique and myself. We all suffered flat tires and a couple of us had suffered bent rims. 

I was totally to blame for this debacle in erring on the side of caution while passing a construction site that moved the traffic down to one lane I decided to go through the construction site. Bad move. There were large gaps with sharp edges. As it was, there was not enough time for me to say stop and signal such and stop myself. Itza was the closest behind me and hit first; her rim bent. Then followed Marshall who made a quick recovery and didn't get any flats. Kyvon, Mahlique, Chris and Houston all got flats. Kyvon and Mahlique had double flats. With this many we don't have enough tubes to repair them all. 

We (meaning I) decided to take Chris' front wheel to give to Itza so that she could keep her perfect rider status (she's the only rider not to have been injured and forced to ride in the van). The rest of us walked. Bob, Marshall and Itza continued on to catch up with Suepinda and Jeimy to inform them that we needed to be picked up.

Meanwhile, the boys wanted to explore the underbelly of the creek we just road over. I allowed them 15 mins before it was time to move on. They enjoyed every minute of it.  They're knuckleheads and their desire to explore could not be abated. They wanted me to go with them. I abstained. My days of exploring wildly were, for the most part, over. But I still remember the joy of doing it.

When they finished exploring we started walking. We walked approximately 2miles when a State Trooper pulled up to us to see if we were alright.  He had seen me walking earlier (while the boys were underneath the bridge) and thought nothing of it. When he saw all of us he came to the conclusion that we needed help. He called the city up ahead, Germantown, to see if the local police could find Suepinda. They could not. He had to leave for an automobile accident and apologized that he could not do more. We thanked him and continued on.

1/2 mile later Suepinda and Jeimy were driving by. It turns out that they grew concerned and headed back on the route to find us. Bob, Marshall and Itza would be up ahead.

The break point was a Wendy's. Inside the conversation was between Bob and a youth minister. Before he left he did the honor of praying for us. 

We were all back together now so we packed up the van and drove to our next Safe House provided by Jim and Deb Young. Friends of Mary Andrews, a parent and instructor of Estes Hills Elementary back in Chapel Hill. They put the Youth Cycling Team up in the Embassy Suites overlooking the Underground Railroad Museum on the Ohio River. What a beautiful place to have as a Safe House.

There we cut the kids loose with money to be young adults on their own with specific instructions to be back at the rooms by 11:30pm. They were given the maps and locations of restaurants. The rest was was up to them.


Bob, Suepinda and I did the sundry work of getting breakfast food for the morning, King's Island tickets for the next day and dinner for ourselves. We toured the back of the hotel and viewed the murals depicting points in history for Covington, KY being so close to Cincinnati, OH. 

A little while later after dinner we went back to the back of the hotel to view the grand fireworks display from across the river in Cincinnati. To everyone's dismay on the Kentucky side of the river that display was a little lackluster. In my opinion, Ohio, or at least Cincinnati has grown tired of paying for a fireworks display for Covington. The fireworks were set off from the Fountain Square and never went higher than the buildings. I was told that they even bounced off buildings. What a debacle for us and Cincinnati. Some folk walked away extremely ticked off. The three of us just walked away. Chuckling.

Spoke 'n Revolutions Youth Cycling UGRR Tour 2011 ~ Visit the nation's National Parks. 
Let's Move Outside!

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