A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Port Jervis

These girls continue to amaze me. (Just to set the record straight, there are 23 of them on this trip and only eight guys. So one could argue they have a presence.)

This afternoon, my riding group took a wrong turn and followed it for several miles. No biggie, when you're already going 60 miles, what's four or five more? So we head back to the intersection where we made the wrong turn, only we cross paths with almost everyone in the trip as we head back because we had marked the turn on the pavement and they followed it. As we crossed paths, they realized our error, turned around, and followed us back to the intersection. By the time we arrived at the intersection, almost everyone on our trip was with us.

Before we turned (again) at the intersection, Skip wisely advised us to go in groups of four to five rather than the entire pack moving out at once. I rolled out with the first group to turn, which also included Kay-Rud, Sophie, and Lenny. “Alright,” I was thinking, “Three people who will go fast and won't take breaks every 10 miles. We'll be at the host in no time.”

We flew through a long, winding, downhill road through the woods. I think that stretch right there was my favorite of the day. So the road levels out, we emerge in some town, and Lenny is way ahead of the rest of us. I see him approach another cyclist in the distance. I figure that since we were the first group to leave the intersection, and since there is no way that one of our people got ahead of us, that this cyclist in the distance must just be some random person. I get closer, and - “Butterfield?”

Lauren Butterfield is one of the young women on this route. I usually pass her in the morning then don't see much of her until she arrives at the host location that afternoon. She has thick, muscular legs, which definitely work in her favor on the bike, but she is also less than five feet tall, which definitely works against her. I always just figured she didn't go faster because she couldn't.

I noticed that she was not at the intersection when the rest of us were. I figured she hadn't gotten there yet. Imagine my surprise when, after tearing through the downhill stretch, I find her ahead of my group, on course, and not even breaking a sweat. Kay-Rud was as astounded as I was. He looked at me as if to ask, “What the hell?” We asked her how she got ahead of us. “I just followed the cue sheet,” was all she had to say.

Not bad, I thought. From there I figured Lenny, Sophie, Kyle, and I would leave her behind as we blazed the rest of the trail. We were going pretty fast, but here's the thing: Butterfield hung with us! I was having trouble keeping up at times, but Butterfield just chugged along, seemingly without breaking a sweat. We arrived at the church in Port Jervis without further incident.

Good day of riding, Butterfield.