T1 Day 56 (Liz)

 8/1/23


Rest day today! 


This morning, I almost forgot I was biking cross country. I woke up at 10am and made my way downstairs to the Dorfmans all sitting outside reading. We had some croissant breakfast sandwiches and coffee. It was slow and relaxed and it felt amazing. Thank you to the Dorfmans (Keelin’s friend’s family) for having us!


Yesterday, we had discussed biking the 15 miles from the Dorfman’s house in Syracuse to Kayla’s grandparent’s house in Fayetteville. This morning, getting back on the bike seemed pretty unappealing, so I was happy when we decided to get a ride instead. 


Wendy was so kind and took us (Keelin and me) to Mellow Velo bike shop for some tubes and energy gus before dropping us off at Kayla’s grandparent’s house. Kayla had spent the previous night with her grandparents, it felt weird to be apart! Today, we’d be spending our rest day with Kayla’s grandparents, Ralph and Felicia, at their house. They were so caring and welcoming.


Unfortunately, Keelin forgot her dopp kit at the Dorfman’s, so she, Kayla, and Ralph drove the 20 minutes back there. I get car sick and opted not to make the trip back. Clearly I made the wrong decision! 3 hours later, the three of them returned laughing after getting a tour of the area and visiting family. It’s alright though, because it gave me time to clean up my bike, sort through belongings, look at our route, and rest. 



Here’s an excerpt from Keelin regarding the adventure:

Keelin here!!! Popping in to tell you about the tour of the greater Syracuse area Kayla’s grandpa gave us!! While we were in the car running back to my friends house to get my toiletries I forgot there, we stopped at various houses that were all part of Kayla’s family in some way!! It was so fun to see how close they lived to my friend’s house that i’ve been to so many times. We actually knocked on the door at Kayla’s great aunt’s house. Her and her daughter were there and we chatted for a while in the driveway. We then drove back through Syracuse and Kayla’s grandpa pointed out all the important buildings you could see from the highway. We then drove through Green Lakes state park… the lake was actually green !!!!! So fun. We pulled back in at 4 pm and starving !!!



Okay back to my blog post…

Once Kayla, Keelin, and Ralph returned, we ate lunch and worked on putting a boot (basically a patch) on Keelin’s tire after her flat yesterday. Time flies on rest days and eventually, it was time for dinner! Ralph and Felicia picked up chicken and vegetarian riggis (apparently an upstate New York staple), and cooked up some corn. 


After some route planning for our last 4 days (!!!), we wrote all these blog posts that we’ve been behind on and called it a night!

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