The first day of riding, September 20, was my 26th birthday. I thought this was a fun coincidence, and part of my decision to participate in the ride was finding an amusing way to celebrate no longer being in the 18-25 category.
The first day was the shortest day of riding - about 47 miles. I woke up not having enjoyed much sleep in my tiny closet of a hostel room. The place had seemed so quiet in the afternoon - I guess because everyone was out doing things. Right after I went to bed a really loud group came in. There were all these signs about being quiet, but that just didn't convince them. Sigh.
Anyways, I got up and hefted my huge bag out of my small room, down the stairs, and about 5 blocks to BLVD. When we arrived, the bikes had been moved around since the night before. After a scavenger hunt to find my bike, I picked up some water bottles and got all my gear ready to go. I reconnected with the girls I had met the night before - Jen, Chrissy, and Christa. AKA my ride support team. I was our navigator and Jen our resident photographer (you will see a lot of her photos).
When we were finally ready to depart, we lined up outside BLVD. CBS was filming our ride out of Manhattan, so we stayed in a clump for the first few blocks. Then we spread out a bit as we continued south under the bridges and to the ferry docks. We stopped at "Bicycle for a Day," an event hosted by Matthew Modine. Then we continued a few more blocks to catch our chartered boat. It looked a lot like the Victoria Clipper. We loaded our bikes onto the bow, which was a little strange for me after babying my bike for so long. Chrissy and I were feeling pretty sick on the ride over and we weren't very interested in lunch at Jersey Highlands after we docked.
My group of girls headed out pretty quickly. We were ready to go, and we knew we weren't the fastest riders in the bunch. The first 16 miles of riding was pretty hilly, but not compared to what we did in the days to come (little did we know!). The remaining 30ish miles of the day were quite flat and pleasant. New Jersey is quite nice! :)
As we came into Princeton, I was definitely starting to feel tired. The Princeton campus was nice - I always enjoy seeing campuses. I took my first fall of the ride going down a street in a group of riders. Lesson learned: Always unclip when you are riding slowly in a pack! Luckily it didn't hurt too much and we were almost there.
The first night we camped on a soccer field at the Princeton YMCA. I thoroughy enjoyed my hot shower at the YMCA, and we got in early enough to relax quite a bit before dinner and the evening talk. Betsy Taylor of 1Sky gave a great talk that was really inspiring and a good kick-off. She asked the experienced riders to be thoughtful of the newer riders and to greet them as they passed. I noticed that a lot of people did this the next day. After the talk we stopped for some hot chocolate - yum. I wrote notes when we got back to our tents. Apparently I had a small headache, but I was feeling okay. I was hopeful because rumor was that the next day of riding was flat.
I didn't get a very god night sleep again. Unfortunately I was pretty cold. I was surprised by how cold the nights were since we had gorgeous weather during the day.
Here are a few picture highlights, almost all courtesy of Jen:
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