When I speak, I don't say much...: I rode through two states in one day!

That's right people, I rode through two states in one day, Ohio and Kentucky! Granted, Cincinnati is on the border of Ohio and Kentucky. And all I really did was ride across one bridge, through the town of Newport Kentucky, and then back over the river to Cincinnati. But that doesn't sound as impressive as riding through two states.

That was basically my day on Monday. Mapmyride.com did it for me again, and I found a 24 mile course that actually passed a block from my hotel. Most of the time, when I look at sites like Mapmyride or bikely, I find lots of great rides (or they look like great rides), but they are no where near the hotel I'm staying in. I'm not in any great shape, so riding 5 miles to start a 25 mile ride only equates to a 35 mile ride. And I can't do that. Well, not yet anyway.

But this ride, looked fine. It rode through downtown along the river, across the Taylor Southgate bridge, through the city of Newport in Kentucky (state number 2), and then back across the Purple People Bridge (a pedestrian only bridge) and then out of town.

In standard Dan fashion, I completely missed the turn for the Taylor Southgate bridge, so I did a backwards loop into Kentucky and crossed the Purple People Bridge first and then came back across the Taylor Southgate. Here's a picture of the Purple People Bridge. The white bridge beyond it is Interstate 471. Can't ride my bike across that.

I crossed back into Ohio, turned right and got ready for the long haul out of town along Riverview Drive, when suddenly, there was a loud hiss. The front end of the bike went mushy and then pinged with every bump in the road. My front tire had gone flat. Thankfully I carry a spare and a compact pump, so I replaced the tube and being only 3 miles from the hotel, turned around and rode back. The compact pump can only put in enough air to get you back, and since I was close, I figured I go back to the hotel and use my full size pump to get the tire back to proper inflation (100 PSI, in case you were wondering), grab the patch kit (I was out of spare tubes) and finish the ride.

I started out again, this time, I skipped the loop into Kentucky and headed straight out of town. The river was on my right, but I kept looking left at the hills, knowing at some point, I was going to turn and go up it.

(Here's a picture from the bridge of the hills outside of Cincinnati)

As I headed out of town, saw the strangest thing on the side of the road. Are those breadfruit? What the heck are breadfruits doing smashed on the side of the road in Cincinnati? I had to turn my bike around and get a picture. A tropical fruit on the side of the road, in a non tropical climate. I couldn't be. One of them had been run over and the innards had the same stringy look as the breadfruit did on the tree we used to have at my dad's house in Hawai'i.

Over dinner, I told Mel and Wayne about my discovery and they were a little baffled as well. The next day, however, the mystery was solved. While we were out on the sporting clays course (another blog I'm about to write), I saw these mysterious breadfruit again. Mel told me they were called "Horse Apples". A totally different thing.

At least the mystery gave me time to think about while I rode my bike. Something other than a hill climb.

The course I had chosen, did a loop around the small corporate airport just outside of town. As I always do, I checked Google Maps to see what the course looks like through their "hybrid" view. This day, it looked like the ride went around the airport along Airport Road. But when I got there, there was a guard shack at the start of the road and I wasn't getting past him. So continued out, looking for the next landmark, a golf course.

When I got to the golf course, I found a bike path that went between the golf course and the airport. I rode that, only to bring me back to the guard shack! I didn't see it hidden behind a mound, but there was a entrance to the bike path next to the guard shack.

I doubled back again (probably adding about 2 miles to my ride) to get back on course. I turned left and started the hill. Similar to West Virginia, the rise started out gradual. It was comfortable, the heart rate was up, but not unbearable. Until...

I'll never forget the name, Heekin Avenue. Left turn on to Heekin and bam! Straight up. I was now about 15 miles into the ride. I could have turned back and taken the nice flat road by the river. But something made me keep going. I figured, I've got to get to top and it's all downhill from there. It has to be, I can see the top of the tree line. So I plugged on. I weaved back and forth on the street to lessen the grade. I monitored my heart rate. When it got to 185 BPM, I would slow and often pull over. Get the rate down a few beats, clip back into the pedals and trudge on. Heekin bobbed and weaved for almost 2 miles, sometimes leveling off, sometimes getting steeper. At the top it turned into Observatory Blvd. and circled a very nice park. I reached the top and pulled over to enjoy some of the fall colours that were burning around me.

With the heart rate back down, I mounted my bike and started off again. I'm at the top, it's all downhill from here.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Observatory Blvd. bent to the right and began a steep decent. I got down into a tuck to try and get maximum speed. The trees began to be replaced with houses. I noticed the road turn to the left and as I leaned in, I began to slow. The road went back up hill! I pedaled furiously to try and keep maximum speed to get as far up the hill before I had to grind it out. 15 mph, 12, mph, 10 mph. Down shift, low gear, crank it out at 7 mph. Get to the top.

And once I got there, it was the same thing, over, and over and over. Crest a hill, speed down, crank back up the other side. This had to stop at some point! The hotel is near the river. At some point I have to go downhill. It wasn't until the final 3 miles did it finally just head downhill into the city. I had bonked at the top of Heekin, and fought to survive to the end.