Day 4 - Big Bike Day

Day 4 was our biggest bike day on the tour so far. After spending one night at the Country Inn & Spa in Berkeley Springs, WV, we started the day early with breakfast at 7:00 a.m., packed our luggage, and hit the C&O Canal Towpath again. We got a late start due to an issue with Todd's bike, but our guides (Joe, Don & John - who are awesome by the way!) quickly fixed it and we were content to ride behind the majority of the pack at our own pace. The terraine continues to be a challenge, but the trip went well nonetheless!

This morning, Todd, Scott & I all biked the first 12 miles together until we reached our first tourist destination - Fort Frederick, Maryland, where we toured the fort and museum and enjoyed learning more about its history.

From Fort Frederick, we biked an additional 13 miles until we reached a pavillion where we ate lunch. Todd decided after 25 miles for the day (wow!!) that he'd better quit while he was ahead, so he opted to go to the next hotel (the Bavarian Inn in Sheperdstown, WV) in the shuttle van to shower and rest up.

Todd keeps saying how disappointed he is in himself that he didn't finish the 36-mile goal he set for himself, but he's obviously the only one that sees his performance as anything short of amazing. Jeez, he was on chemo up until a couple days ago and his lung function is compromised! Plus, Todd and Marius (from Lithuania) are the only two people on this tour that have lung metastases and are currently on chemo, so the fact that they are participating at all is nothing short of incredible. Anyway, I wanted to join Todd for some R&R back at the hotel too (it's been a hectic week so far and we haven't had a lot of down time), but there wasn't room in the van and I still had energy, so I opted to bike the next leg of the trip. All in all, I completed 36 miles today - which is definitely more than I've done in training! And Scott, rock star that he is, completed the full 52 mile trip with his new buddy John from Denmark. :)

We capped the night off with a nice dinner in the ballroom of the Bavarian Inn and listened to a reading from a woman who wrote a book called "The Letters" about losing her husband to sarcoma many years ago, only to be diagnosed with the same type of sarcoma herself several years ago. The reading was beautiful and stirred a lot of emotion in the room. Unfortunately for me, the talk of losing a spouse to cancer stirred up a little too much emotion (I try to keep buried down my fears of losing Todd and it was hard to stop crying once I started!). But after a hot shower, I felt much better and we were able to drift off in a nice, happy sleep.

We can't wait to continue the trek tomorrow!

- Karen