This is the weekend my permanent address changes to Chicago. Now I could get in a car and drive 5 hours, but that would too easy. A few weeks ago knowing this trip was looming in the distance, I decided to make it interesting and ride my bike. Now riding a bike 400 miles is not that odd. People riding touring bike on multiple day trips all the time. So just riding the distance from Lexington to Chicago on a would be too normal. So to shake things up a little I decided to do it on a fixed gear bike. This is a bike normally used for track racing. It has one gear and the rear hub and pedals are on a 1 to 1 ratio. This means no coasting. If you pedal forward you go forward. Pedal backwards, and yes you go backwards. Normally they don't have brakes, but I decided to add some to my bike. This bike along with a trailer (Burley ), and I on the road. Today was day one.
Todays trip was from Lexington to Madison, IN, which is a little over 100 miles. This would be the toughest day of the four. A lot of hills, one gear, and a heavy trailer make for an interest day. I talked two friends (Brad & Alex) into making the first leg of the journey with me . Good thing because I would not have made it. By the end of the day, I had walked up 4 hills pushing my bike. It was brutal! The hills were just too much. We traded out the trailer all along the way to make the trip possible.
I have never been so happy to arrive somewhere in my life. Day one is in the books. Tomorrow its off the Indianapolis. The forecast calls for rain. I will be all alone tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get out of bed tomorrow morning.
