The Eagle Has Landed

This morning's shower was the greatest thing that's happened to me in a long time.  I hoped I left there disease-free, went next door to grab some ice, a gallon of water, and some protein bars, and off I went back into the early morning sun.

I stopped for gas just across the river from Louisville, which was earlier than I really needed to, but on this trip I'm not getting cute with stretching gas stops.  I've never run out of gas on a Sportster with a 3 gallon tank (OK, once but I coasted downhill to a gas station) so I was not about to do it on a bike with a tank twice as large, especially when I'm "on the clock."

As soon as I got back up on the big road, I ended up in Louisville traffic in the usual maze of exits and crossovers.  I've never been here; since leaving St. Louis everything is new to me, although much of it was after dark.  Going into full-alert-head-on-a-swivel mode, I see a few spots ahead of me a guy on a bike.  He's got stuff strapped to it, and is in a light-colored long-sleeved shirt and by his actions I can tell he's also far from home and has done this before.  We dodged and parried for a while and then parted ways.

Cincinnati from the south

Five hundred miles in 11 hours, on a sunny day is about the easiest thing I will have done all week, and sure enough, it was.  The only thing I learned was between Cincinnati and Columbus. 

There was a wreck that I still cannot comprehend - two cars in my side of the median facing one way, and another waaaay on the southbound side shoulder facing the correct way with the front end destroyed.  I have no idea what took place, but it closed a lane in each direction. I'm still way ahead of the game at this point, so no issue other than the sun beating on me.  Which brings me to what I learned.

Original Cincinnati-Covington KY Ohio River bridge

A great method to manage sunburn and heat exhaustion is to wear a light-colored long-sleeved shirt, just like the other guy was, and just like I'd been doing for the last couple days.  I'll put on a sleeveless or t-shirt in the morning when it's cool, and when the sun gets strong I have a  nice, loose white long-sleeved thing that is almost like thermal underwear in texture, but way lighter.  When it's really hot, you soak down the undershirt either in the bathroom, or with your handy gallon cooler if you're between stops in the middle of nowhere.  The evaporation does a pretty good job of cooling you down, and the long sleeved overshirt both keeps the sun off and keeps the other shirt from drying out completely in a mile and a half.  It works.

Done!

After the traffic jam, I put on today's long-sleeved shirt, this one a regular weight t-shirt in gold (probably goldenrod or marigold or taupe or something, but whatever.)  I'd worn the white with great results for 2 or 3 days and retired it to the dirty bag, and it was time for a fresh one.  This one felt heavier over my regular t-shirt, and was.

Good lord, that was a mistake.  I was sweating to death in 5 miles, and no soaking of any undershirt was going to fix that.  Rather than douse both at the next exit, and not willing to dig the stinky one out of the stinky bag, I just doubled down on the sunscreen and kept going.  Lesson learned.  More light, white shirts.

Before you know it, Columbus turned into Wheeling, and I-79 turned into Pittsburgh.  I found my airport exit, turned onto University Boulevard, and got my receipt for a liter of water and 22-oz Budweiser (which went into the gallon cooler can and all) at Sheetz  #379 with 1,527 miles on the clock and 3-1/2 hours to spare.  Mission accomplished.

While in outer space, however, I had one more thing to do.  By sheer coincidence, Donna and I were out for a ride near Pittsburgh earlier this summer, and discovered that Mars is also just outside Pittsburgh, not 25 miles from Moon.  This led me to the idea of taking Marvin the Martian along, and taking him home.  It did not count in my certified ride, but of course it was the right thing to do and now was the only thing left.  And so we did.  And he was home.  And there should have been great rejoicing.  But, in fact, there were only 2 people on a park bench by the flying saucer, and they had no idea what was going on.