You're turning out to be quite the problem child...

This morning at 9 am I woke up, ate a filling homemade breakfast sandwich, put my cycling shorts, some tights & ample upper body wear on, donned my helmet & set off for Pro Bikes in Squirrel Hill. I had a bike fit at 10 am. A bike fit takes a serious look at how you ride, you're measurements, flexibility, honestly, really about everything you can think of, and uses that information to help improve the set up of your bike to best benefit the rider. A fit typically takes 2 hours, mine took 4.  My uber short torso & super long legs & monkey arms proved to be somewhat of an issue. Once we got the seat (saddle) at the right height I struggled to reach the handlebars without shoulder pain. When we got it so I could reach the handlebars my knees hit my elbows on each pedal stroke. Needless to say it took some serious thinking on the part of Gregg & Todd to get everything figured out. Well, I'm pleased to say we have it mostly figured out, but Todd, one of the guys at Pro Bikes wanted to talk to some friends & see if they had ever run into a problem like this, I had pretty much everyone baffled. By the end they were calling me the problem child. Haha.

Because my fit took so long I was unable to meet up with fellow SUS '12 rider Emily. So, after getting some suspect directions I set off to explore the Panther Hollow trail as well as the Eliza Furnace/Jail trail. I got what are called clipless pedals, which is misleading, because these actually allow you to clip in to your bike with special cycling shoes.

The below pictures feature (left) a clipless pedal very similar to my new set, you'll notice they're very small, they have just enough space for the clip on the bottom of the shoe to "hook" in to the pedal. The (middle) picture features a shoe in the process of clipping in to a pedal and the (right) pictures features my new Camelbak Mule. :)

While in the long run this clipless pedal will make me much more efficient with each pedal stroke it is at the current moment PETRIFYING to clip in and out of my pedals to come to a complete stop. I almost fell over into traffic, including a PAT bus, on several occasions. : / Eek. I stopped by some interesting graffiti, leaned my bike up against the wall, & took my camera out of my Camelbak to take a picture, only to discover I really ought to check my camera batteries BEFORE I leave home. So sadly, no pictures of my bike in action.

Now, normally I would explore 3 more cities on our route, but because this entry is already so long we'll keep it to 1 & I'll be back tomorrow to explore some more. Tonight, we explore Apalachicola.

Apalachicola, FL

 

Boats in Apalachicola Bay

• Known by the locals as "Apalach" and was once the 3rd largest port on the Gulf of Mexico.
• Has over 900 historic homes & buildings listed in the National Register District.

One of the 900 Historic Homes

• The taste of the oysters from Apalachicola have been recognized nationally by chefs for their unique taste. They harvest 90% of the oysters in the state of Florida & 10% of the nations oysters.

32.32 miles + 10.85 miles today = 43.17 miles / 500, 456.83 miles to go.