T1 Day 29 (Liz)

7/5/23


I woke up this morning to Kayla making tiny pancakes, so exciting! Somehow I am so hungry all the time (I wake up feeling like I could eat a whole loaf of bread and still have room for more). After eating a breakfast of eggs, fruit, and pancakes, we packed up and left the lovey Bismark home we’d been staying at. Shoutout to the kind strangers who have hosted us (even when they’re not home) along the way. 


We made our way to 701 Cycling where we were met with incredibly friendly and helpful bike fit experts and mechanics. Both of the bike fit experts (master fitters?) had biked cross country. One told us how she raced coast to coast with 3 other cyclists in 7 days! They all had experience with saddle sores and recommended Desitin diaper rash cream along with frequent showers and laundry. 


We all bought new, sized down bike shorts since our old ones have grown and we’ve shrunk. I also bought a new saddle! (Even though everyone else seems to love the power comp w/ mimic, I do not.) The mechanics tuned up my bike while Kayla got her sits bones measured. Then they reseeded her tires and worked on her derailleur. Apparently both of our chains are pretty worn out. All in all we spent about 4 hours at the shop. And they must’ve felt some sympathy for us cross country cyclists because they ended up undercharging us for service and gear. 


After shipping our old bike shorts home and eating lunch in some random patch of grass, we were on our way to Hazelton. The 45 miles flew by, especially since I ended up on the phone with my boyfriend for almost 2 hours.


Once we arrived at Hazelton’s cute little town park, we showered, changed, and set up camp. The one town grocery store we planned to restock at was closed, as well as the gas station we hoped to get ice cream at. (And the one restaurant/ bar in town didn’t have dessert.) Kind of disappointing. But regardless, we walked around town, swapped stories, giggled, and had some dark chocolate before getting ready for bed. 

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