Bike Adventure Day 38

Today was spent in a deep haze in the back seat of the van. Midas referred to me as the living dead at one point. Most riders were like, has she woke up at all? Each rest stop was the same. I slept, and ate very little. I did drink some water and some electrolytes. I have not been this sick in quite some time. So thankful to not be biking today.

 

We arrived in Dinosaur and some of the team really wanted to take a trip up to the Dinosaur National Monument. This whole trip, once we hit Colorado is like a view finder into my past. I had been here when I was around 11. So even though I was sick, I really wanted to go back and see it again. We all piled into the van and off we went. It was similar to what I remember, although there were some things different from what I thought I remembered. Ultimately I am glad I got to go see it again.

 

Tom had taken a couple of weeks off to go up to Alaska with his brother to go fishing. He brought back a ton of Halibut, which we had with mashed potatoes for dinner. I ate for the first time in nearly 30 hours, I really did not feel like eating, but I knew I should. I then immediately crashed out. I decided that another day of riding in the van was a good idea. Actually Tom decided that and put his foot down. It is amazing how being sick can zap your energy. So glad the team understands. It seems we have become a roaming family. This trip is sort of like living in a moving commune. I wanted to experience communal living in my lifetime, now I think I can officially say I have.

Bike Adventure Day 37, Build Day 5

Today was a build day. We split into teams and went to 11 build/clean-up sites. My team worked on painting a disabled veteran’s front and back porch. We then went onto another disabled veteran’s home to work on yard clean up and maintenance. Once we were done, I opted to go back to the church and take a nap.

In the afternoon, I woke up and immediately began to feel sick. Unfortunately this lasted around 4 days. I was in the bathroom for most of the evening and rode in the van the following two days. It appears that we have a bug amongst us. I found another girl in the bathroom the other night, sleeping. She was very sick, same symptoms. We leave for Dinosaur Colorado in the morning, unfortunately I will not be riding.

Glad that I was not sick before the build day. Those are probably the most important days for the communities we serve.

Bike Adventure Day 35

Ride that downhill like you own the bitch!  That is how it feels to descend a mountain.

Today we finished crossing the Rockies.  We first had to climb and cross the Rabbit Ears Pass.  This by far was a worse ride then the straight up climb to Hoosier Pass.  I am uncertain as to why, but I definitely hated this pass.  Once we climbed the second smaller portion of the pass the downhill was 7 miles long and 2500-3000 ft.  This meant that minimal speed out of the pass was around 30 mph.  I imagine there were those that got up to 50 mph.  I hit about 42 and held that steady due to loose rocks and traffic. What a freaking ride.

A large portion of our group decided to celebrate by stopping for lunch in Steamboat Springs.  This is the way I like to ride.  Break it up and celebrate in between.  I again was the last along with the sweeps, but this is really not bothering me, I would rather be last and finish the ride then not ride at all.  This really sounds strange, considering that every morning I really think about taking a day off, but I get on the bike.

This by far is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.  If I were to do it again, I would most definitely want to have shorter rides and more free time to explore on my own agenda.  Today we biked 94 miles and much of it was downhill, with some rolling hills in the end of it.  We arrived in Craig Montana late in the afternoon.  Showers were rushed so we could get back for dinner.

After dinner a few of us went out for bowling.  Most had their orange T-shirts on, I however did not.  I was not going to bowl due to fear of messing my arm and wrist up more.  I had a couple of drinks and then was basically forced into a game.  It was fun and I do love hanging with this group of people.  These are some of the greatest strangers ever assembled.

When we arrived at the bowling alley a man saw us and got extremely excited.  He cornered me at the bar and asked if we were the cyclist that he had been reading about in the paper.  Yes, apparently the local news has featured our arrival for a few days now.  He thought we were the greatest thing to happen to this town.  When we went to pay for our games, it turns out he paid for all of our games and shoe rentals.  So a huge thank you to a man who loved the fact that we biked into town and that I loved a true martini.  I wish I would have gotten his name.  

 

Bike Adventure Day 33

Today was a very rough day. All climbing all day. At least it felt that way. I did well for the first 20 miles, it quickly went downhill from there. After the first 20 miles I was doing fine, but there was a ton of climbing. Something I really try not to talk about is the fact that my knees are in constant pain. I take sleeping herbs to help fall asleep, the pain keeps me awake. If it is not my knee it is my right arm these days. I literally carry a pharmacy in my bag with me at all times.

As we continually climbed for several hours, I noticed another rider struggling. I got off and walked my bike with her for a bit. We convinced ourselves to get back on the bikes when the sweeps arrived. If the heat had not been so intense, and I did not have pain in my knees I might have made it, I like to think I would have anyway. As the climb continued, the other rider struggles became more and more apparent. At one point the sweeps told me to go on ahead and they would call for help. I rode and walked a good mile or so before one of the sweeps caught up to me. He asked if I had cell reception, which I did not. Apparently they tried to get her to walk a bit more due to not being able to call for help.

At this point I went on, knowing she needed help as soon as possible. I was getting worried about her and the sweeps. The rate I was going (5 mph) would have taken me 2 hours to find help. I pushed myself as much as I could. One of the sweeps caught up to me. A truck had picked the other sweep and the struggling rider up. I was so glad to hear that, except now I was struggling to get through. My knees were hurting and I felt like I might be starting to get dehydrated. I walked at least 3 miles uphill today. I caused the sweep to have to walk as well. He may have been struggling simply due to the heat as well. When we finally got to the rest stop, I had never been so happy in my whole life.

My ride ended at about 40 miles today, I think more than anything if I had not felt like I was the only one to get help, I might have continued on for at least 20 more miles. We arrived in Fairplay Colorado. This is also the location of the South Park Television series. We had a beautiful thunder-storm this evening and I had a fabulous veggie sandwich while doing laundry.

Oh and as we were separating laundry outside the Rec Center I heard a little girl say: ” Mommy look at her,,,,,” obviously mom hushed her up. I knew immediately she was referring to my shaved head. Later a family came in, a man and wife and three kids I think. I have no idea where the rest of the family wandered off to, but the man turned to me and informed me he really liked my hair. I didn’t notice but he had a mohawk, which explains a ton.

Bike Adventure Day 34

We left Fairplay this morning rather late, 7 am.  When did 7 am become late I have no idea?  I want to note that I hate pants.  I am on a pants boycott, but today we were headed over Hoosier Pass.  The elevation was around 11534 ft.  We needed warmer clothes in the pass and then on the downhill due to being sweaty and then the steep incline increasing speed.  So today for the first time I brought out my heavier jacket and my winter pants, did I mention I hate pants?

As we left I worried about the climb, we had to climb over 1000 ft in less than 4 miles.  I ride this ridiculously heavy bike that is not only heavy but quite slow, well at least I want to blame the bike for being slow.  I left with the first group, hoping to keep up for a bit, but as usual not keeping up at all.  As I progressed up the trail to the pass there was a rollover vehicle to the right of the path, the police had just arrived.  I heard that the sweeps and some of the other riders who left after me had to go up onto the road around the tow truck for this.  I just had to go around the police officers.

The climb was incredible.  It was very hard, and after not finishing yesterday, I really wanted to complete the climb today.  I eventually got passed by the other riders behind me, but they stopped just as much as I did.  It is really unsettling to ride up a steep hill with traffic and not much of a shoulder.  Drinking water becomes a stop to avoid swerving into traffic.  It also allows you to get a grip mentally on the challenge.  As we got closer to the summit I saw signs and chalk pointing up.  It really helps to see things like that when mentally you are beaten down.  The air gets thinner as you go up in elevation and breathing becomes more challenging.

The president of Fuller Center, David Snell and his family were at the Crest to encourage us and root us on.  As I topped that mountain I heard cow bells, cheering and felt this overwhelming emotion.  Immediately went to the sign where a group had already formed posing for pictures.   I pushed my bike up on that sign and stood for many pictures before deciding I needed to eat and get some water.

As I was walking over to the trailer I was overwhelmed with emotion and lost it.  I could not stop crying and I actually hugged people voluntarily.  The big joke on this trip is to sandwich me into a group hug, which I hate.  I do not like being hugged unless I am intimate with people.  I have always been this way.  I cried on several people and still really have no idea why, but apparently I needed it.  As we left the summit, there was a plan.  Ten miles down the road in Breckenridge we all met for donuts at Daylite Donuts.  Kurt is on a mission to have donuts in every town across the country.  I swear he has a hollow leg, maybe two.

The downhill was incredible.  It was all hairpin turns with 25 mph posted, I bet most of us broke that rule, or at the very least went that fast easily.  It was the greatest ride of my life.  Seriously after a month and a half of mostly climbing to finally get to descend was fantastic.  If this was where the ride ended, it would have been worth it.

After donuts we headed on towards Kremmling.   We went across this most spectacular damn on our way.  The route was so smooth and so perfect.  Surrounded by water and mountains, it was very serene.  Today was by far the greatest ride of this trip thus far.  Everyone made it, no man left behind!  I got so focused on the white line that the hills and climbing were completely out of my mind.  The last 35 miles were on a road with no real shoulder, a sharp edge with gravel and only two lanes of traffic.  Staying focused was required, and it helped push me along to the end.  We ended up at Gore Range Baptist Church, where the Snell family provided us with dinner.  Lasagna and salad with garlic bread a perfect end to a perfect riding day.

Bike Adventure Day 31, Rest Day

Woke up early today and wandered to the coffee shop for some coffee and wi-fi before the day got away from me.  This is actually why my blog is so far behind.  Several places had no wi-fi and spending my time in a coffee shop is not what I want to do.  Breakfast was again wonderful.  It is so nice when people understand you.  The one church lady has a daughter who is vegetarian so she is used to cooking that way which makes it nice for me.

The group pretty much did their own thing today.  Almost everyone at some point took time to clean bike chains and perform basic maintenance.  The wonderful members of the church were able to gather up visitor bags for us all.  They were also able to acquire passes to the water slide park.  When the heat crested above 100 degrees I was headed to the park.  A few of us went and more joined us later.  There were two slides, I went down both but somehow pulled my shoulder and decided once for each was enough.  It was refreshing and fun to hang out in a water park instead of in sweaty bike clothes all day.  We had to be back by 6 for  dinner followed by a presentation.

Before swimming, we had lunch at various locations.  I noticed this little shop that I wanted to check out.  Turns out it is a Ten thousand villages shop.  All fair trade things, and another rider had found little hand crafted bicycle earrings there.  I asked about them and they found some more for me.  I also bought a pair of hand carved peace sign earrings.

After the presentation there was a head shaving party.  Yes, I kinda started it.  I stated I may shave my head before this ride is over.  I was more than encouraged to do so.  Someone had clippers picked up and the shaving began.  I expected little church ladies to freak out about my shaving, but they thought it was ok.  At breakfast the next day they all noticed and were surprised that I actually shaved it all the way down.  

Bike Adventure Day 30

Today was our 7th day in a row in the saddle.  I have saddle sores and sore sit bones.  Fortunately it was a shorter ride.  We all arrived at the destination church before noon.  It feels so good to arrive early and have the rest of the day to get things done.  We showered and some went out for lunch with the people in charge of our care.  I have noticed that the smaller churches are often the ones that spare no expense or time to provide for us.  We ate at the Copper Kitchen, a local diner.  Being a vegetarian is always a challenge.  I saw a nice looking deli and really was looking forward to having a sandwich there, but it was closed forever.

This is the location for our day off tomorrow. I am looking forward to relaxing and resting.  The church will provide us with dinner tonight, breakfast tomorrow and dinner tomorrow night.  One lady has a vegetarian daughter so the food was most excellent.  I have found that in general the prejudices I have against religious people are melting away.  I do not feel judged or looked down upon and that is so refreshing.

Went to see the movie Despicable Me 2 in this historic theater.  I do not remember the last time I watched a movie for $6 that was a first showing.  We sat down to watch it and the theater began to fill with noisy children.  I wondered if we would be able to hear over them or if the whole movie would just be squawking and screaming.  Pleasantly enough when the movie actually started the kids for the most part became silent, laughing at appropriate times.  Before the movie started the locals ads were on the screen.  This by far, was the most unique ad experience I have ever had.  It was mostly a bunch of power point slides, a couple of them had music, and one was actually a video with words.  I found it amusing that a tattoo parlor was advertising that did not even exist yet.   Great movie  by the way.

Bike Adventure Day 29

We left Lakin Kansas this morning and headed to Lamar Colorado.  Hoping to leave the prairie behind us and get a view of the mountains.  I have been dreading this segment of the ride the most.  The Rockies just seem so epic. I fear my abilities or lack thereof.

The ride was painful for me.  My sitbones hurt constantly along with the most incredible diaper rash ever.  I ended up getting into the van the last 16 miles.  Again my body is rebelling and telling me to slow up.  I would rather listen to my body then run the risk of serious injury.  Considering that I was hit by a truck 2.5 years ago, I am feeling pretty fabulous minus the constant pain my knees are in.  Add to this my bum and my wrist and I am a trainwreck.  But I continue on this adventure as best I can.

Upon arrival in Lamar we were to stay at a community center.  There was some confusion, they said they knew cyclist were coming to shower but they did not allow anyone to sleep in the facility.  They said there was a group of cyclist in the gym across the street.  They assumed we were to share the space with them.  We all unloaded the van and started showers.  About an hour later and multiple phone calls we figured out we were actually to be in the community center.  We packed our gear and bikes across the street.  The other team were relocated due to confusion caused by us.

Originally the other team, a group of very nice frat boys biking from Seattle to DC, were being fed dinner by this wonderful woman who feeds this group every year for the last 10 years.  Our leader had been talking to her when trying to figure out our accomodations for the night.  Our plan was to make dinner ourselves but in the gym there was no way to prepare food.  The woman, Mary Minor was her name, called our leader back a little bit later and invited us to dinner as well.  This wonderful woman fed their group of 20 cyclist and 8 support crew, and our team of 2 support crew and 17 riders.  She opened her home up to us all and there was plenty of food and conversation.  It turned into one of the best days so far.