nearly to a rest day

Dick is the oldest rider at the ripe age of 70. He’s absolutely amazing and has been a trooper in every way. I told him that he was my hero today, and I meant it. He’s struggled a bit over this last stretch of six days without a rest day, so he has decided to take the day off and ride with one of the crew members in the support van. The support van has been termed the unfortunate “saggin’ wagon”, and if you have to ride in it, it’s called “sagging”. I think these are less than compelling terms, and I have suggested renaming the vehicle something a bit more positive, like the “Rehabilitation Facilitation Vehicle” (or RFV for short). It hasn’t really caught on yet, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. :o)

Breakfast was catered by the Tu Phat Girls who made breakfast casseroles, french toast, and fruit salad. Mmm! We then took off to cover the 87 miles between Tyler, Minnesota and New Ulm, Minnesota.

I rode with Brian again in the morning, and it helped the time go more quickly. After lunch, I rode with a big group -- Brian, Caitlin, Gabe, and Kasey. We had a lot of fun chatting and playing guessing games like “20 Questions”. The boys took off and Caitlin and I were determined to keep up, so we went pretty quickly through the afternoon. Today was our sixth day of riding with no break (our longest stretch without a break yet), but somehow I wasn’t feeling too bad and even seemed to be getting faster as the week went along (or maybe it was just that the headwinds were finally easing off). Unfortunately the headwinds missed the memo that their time was up, and they raged against us over the last 10 miles into New Ulm. We had to take several breaks during the 10 miles because battling the winds was so exhausting. Also unfortunately, the storm clouds that had threatened to break all day made good on their threat about an hour before we got in to New Ulm, so we were drenched by rain over the last bit of the ride before arriving at 2 PM.

During today’s ride, we passed through some cute towns, such as Sleep Eye, Minnesota (I believe this town was named after an Indian chief), where you see a lot more locally owned stores and restaurants (such as Sleepy Eye’s very tempting ‘Casey’s homemade donuts’ store) and few chains.

We are staying in the dorms at Martin Luther University (the one that nailed his theses to the church door, not the one who had a dream – although I’m sure Martin Luther did dream, just not the dream) in New Ulm, MN. We had a dinner of spaghetti, salad, and ice cream at the school cafeteria.

New Ulm is a really cute little town, settled in the 1850s by Germans. It still very much retains the charming Bavarian character. We also lucked out and our rest day coincides with the Bavarian Blast Festival which I definitely plan to attend.

storms

I woke up at 2:47 AM, and it was raining, but I was as snug as a bug in a rug. It tapered off and had stopped raining by the time I woke up at 4:30 AM. (A storm was forecast for later in the morning, so we’d decided to pack up a bit early to avoid having to pack up in it.) I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when I heard a series of deep rumbles. The other girls in there and I turned around and looked at each other to see if anyone else knew what the noise was. We opened the door to the bathroom to find a torrential downpour. The noise had been thunder, and was also apparently our warning that we had approximately 10 seconds to pack up our bags and tents if we didn’t want them drenched. We all scrambled around like ants in an ant hill that had just been stepped on, frantically trying to pack up our belongings, take down and bundle up our tents, and give each other a hand.

We then bicycled the ¹⁄₂ mile to Ward’s store for breakfast where we had a breakfast casserole with egg and sausage, boiled eggs, and the previous evening’s leftover cheesey potatoes and cake (every decent meal needs dessert!).

The rain storm continued on through breakfast and most of the morning, and unfortunately the headwinds were present today as well. The only way I’ve been able to find any relief from it is to curl up and get lower on my bike so that the wind has less surface area to hit. This does do some good (though not a lot), but it also seriously limits your available positions on the bike. Usually holding on to the handle bars requires you to be leaning forward at a 45° angle, but sometimes I’ll sit upright and hold on to the top of the handle bar; sometimes I’ll lean further forward and hold on to the drop handlebar; sometimes I’ll rest my forearms on the top of the handle bar. Anyhow, where I’m going with this is that you generally have fewer positions when riding in wind avoidance mode, so I’m getting a bit stiff and sore with all of this downward riding – and my body is letting me know how displeased it is. My wrists say to me “Why do we have to hold you up all day? Aren’t you aware that you have legs for this task? We are made to chill out – possibly sit at a desk and type. We’ve been happy to accept this task and other odd jobs as required. What we are not made for is to hold your torso up all day. Work something else out!” And my behind says “We’ve had an arrangement that you have adhered to for so long – why the sudden change? Things were going so well with our arrangement. I sit in chairs. I prefer cushions, but I’m somewhat flexible. I’ll sit on bicycle saddles on occasion, but nothing like this. You’re asking far too much of me.”

Thankfully, Brian, one of the speedier riders, slowed down a bit to ride with me today. While he did slow down a bit, it was still a lot quicker than I usually went, so I had to go at a quick clip to stick with him. When I’m by myself and don’t have anyone else to keep pace with, I tend to spiral down the path of least resistance and just barely keep my pedals moving, so it’s always nice to ride with others – both for the company and because I generally go faster!

Late in the ride, we crossed the state line into Minnesota. To South Dakota and its headwinds, I say good riddance! The state sign boasted that Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, but with all of the flooding happening here, I bet they’re up to 11,000! The stagnant bodies of water that occupy what was once farmland and the rotting vegetation therein give off quite a foul smell that accompanied us for much of today’s ride.

Interestingly, the Minnesota state government has more or less shut down due to lack of agreement over a state budget, so all of the rest stops in Minnesota are closed. I hope this is not foreshadowing for the federal government! Unfortunately, the wind followed us right in to Minnesota as well – it seems there’s no escaping it! However, at least there were windmills all over the place in Minnesota (they were noticeably absent in South Dakota) so that at least some good resulted from the mercilessly strong winds.

As we rode in to the small town of Tyler, we saw a lot of damage done by a recent tornado. Trees had fallen down right and left, sometimes cracking in half, sometimes tipping right over taking a chunk of the ground with it as though it were just too tired to stand up anymore and had laid down.

We spent the night in the Tyler High School (though I still had to set up my tent to let it dry out from this morning’s deluge), and I had a most bizarre experience upon my arrival. The first several bikers to arrive at camp each evening help unload everyone’s bags from the gear truck. Generally, when I arrive, this has long since been done. However, not today – I was somehow a speedy one, and though it meant the extra work of unloading the truck, I was just overjoyed to be involved because it meant I wasn’t such a slow snail.

Dinner was still several hours off, so I went in to town for a snack at the Timber Tavern. Another rider had been there and recommended the jalapeno poppers, so I tried those. While they were delicious, they were also somewhat appalling. They are jalapenos sliced in half, filled with cream cheese, and then deep fried. I felt like I’d eaten a brick after I finished them!

Dinner was catered at the high school by the “Tu Phat Girls” catering company. Now I know that based on the name, you may be expecting that they served Vietnamese food or something similar. However, they were just two little American ladies who served up barbeque pork, corn, salad, and similar fare. I have no idea how they chose the name for their catering company!

After dinner, we all played silly board games and laughed a lot, which was much needed after this week’s long days and pummeling by the wind.

half way there!

Today we had breakfast in camp and I tried to get on the road pretty early so that I might have a chance of getting in at a reasonable time. Unfortunately, every single rider passed me, except Sarah, and we rode in together. My knees were really hurting today. They always start out with a dull whimper. I try to tell them stories to distract them, but it never works. The whimper turns into a whine and eventually a full blown wail, complete with temper tantrum. I’m not sure if it’s the terrain we’ve covered lately or the relentless headwinds, but something has been really hard on my knees lately, and they’re not pleased one bit. I talked to some of the crew members about it in the evening, since the pain seems to be getting worse rather than better as hoped, and they took a look at me on the bike and said that it was probably my leg length discrepancy (2.5 cm) that was causing the knee pain. They’d had to set the saddle height halfway between the ideal length for either leg, so the set up ended up being non-ideal for either leg, and they said it probably manifested as knee pain. On the next rest day, we’re going to get some extra wedges to put on the outside of my shoe and insoles to put on the inside of my shoe to help even things out. Hopefully then my needs will halt their whining once and for all. In retrospect, perhaps tearing my knee cartilage to bits playing soccer growing up was not in my best interest. :o/

Excitingly, today was the halfway point of our ride, both in number of miles completed (1650) and number of days (24 of the ride’s 48). It both seems entirely too fast and entirely too slow – one part of me thinks “We’re half way already??” and the other part thinks “Surely we’ve crossed North America and most of South America by now!”. I also finished listening to the epically long Atlas Shrugged today, and I’m not sure which I should consider my greatest accomplishment – bicycling half way across America or finishing Atlas Shrugged.



The headwinds were really rough today. It’s a brutal thing that wind. When the rode curved, the wind seemed to shift with it so that it was hitting me squarely in the face all day long. It pummels you mercilessly drying your skin and your spirits. It’s like you’re waging a war against an invisible enemy and don’t particularly have any defences. At least with the hills, there's a goal, an end, and a reward. The goal is to get yourself up it, the end is when you do, and the reward is a descent. They're finite. There's no such goal, no end, and no reward to riding on flat prairie lands with the wind blasting you. It's infinite.

Kathleen said she got so exasperated and frustrated that at one point, when she was bicycling all alone, she started crying and yelled out to the empty plains of South Dakota “I’M NOT HAVING FUN ANYMORE!!!” And then she said she switched from tears to uncontrollable laughter as she came to the realization that screaming you’re not having fun anymore is more suitable for 5 year olds.

Over the last hour of the ride, it began to rain and continued to do so as I arrived to camp. This was my first time assembling my tent in the rain (you can imagine that perhaps I was not ready for this challenge), but with a bit of help from a few others, I managed to assemble it without too much trouble and without getting the inside drenched. Also, I learned how to work the adjustable strings on the rain fly that I’d apparently been doing all wrong. You have to stake them in such that you can adjust them during the night as needed if the wind is blowing the rain fly too much one way (or I think that was what they said).

Another thing I’d been struggling with with respect to the tent is how to put on pants (OK, trousers for you Brits who are cracking up ;o)) inside it. Generally, when one puts on pants, they’re standing up. But I can’t stand all the way up inside my tent. So I’d stand with my legs straight and then lean forward and try to wriggle into pants. But sometimes hopping is required to get into pants and when I was in this position and hopped, I hopped right into the side of the tent. I can’t imagine how odd that looked from the outside. However, today I had the (belated) idea to lay down and the wriggle into my pants. This was far more effective. I think this resolves the last mystery about the tent. Hopefully I’ll have it down pat now. :o)

After we’d arrived in camp, Dick asked me how my day had been. I answered “It was one of those days”. He laughed and said “That’s what you’ve been saying for the last three days”. I hope I get to stop saying this soon. :o/

We camped in a park in De Smet, South Dakota. De Smet is a cute town that claims to be the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. They had a little museum devoted to her there, but I didn’t have time to go.

We had dinner at Ward’s Store in town, and it seemed like it was one of those general purpose stores that meets all sorts of needs (a “Walmart in training” as one of the riders dubbed it). It had a little coffee counter, served as a restaurant as well, and then the other half was a store featuring De Smet items for tourists, all sorts of candles and decorations, thread and sewing materials, clothing and all manner of other goods but all within this small space that’s the size of a normal restaurant. They served cheesey potatoes, chicken, salad, raw vegetables and dip, and an amazing cake for dessert.

Kathleen jumped in the photo of today's cue sheet...

more headwinds

We had breakfast in the parking lot of the high school and I had a banana with peanut butter, yogurt, and coffee. I was such an exhausted mess when I arrived last night that I hadn’t done some of my preparations the night before like I usually do, so I had to do them in the morning and got off to a somewhat late start.

The strong headwinds were back today, but it was a bit more manageable as I knew what to expect. Still, by mile 33, I was already exhausted so I stopped at the Staples Café in Harrold, South Dakota for a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich and cup of coffee which seriously hit the spot.

I did invent another game today. It’s called stay on the white line, and it involves keeping my front wheel on the white line that indicates the edge of the road. It’s pretty simple really – just the one rule. And I don’t really keep score. But it helps to pass the time. :o) From my point of view, it looks something like this….



Excitingly, I did master the skill of being able to bike while leaning forward and resting both of my forearms on the handle bar. This one took a while to get down, but it seems that I’ve gotten the hand of it at last!

I did not especially thrive today and barely petered along, but it seems that I was not the only one struggling. I rode all afternoon with Eric and Sarah and was really glad for the company. We also ran across a fellow dressed as Captain America who has been walking back and forth across America for several years (and plans to continue walking until 2020!) to bring attention to veteran's rights (or lack thereof). His website can be found here.



We stayed at the high school in Miller, South Dakota, and very excitingly they had a washing machine there, so I was able to clean my clothes.

We ate dinner out that night on our own, and though I asked a local for a recommendation on a dinner spot, it seems that Miller is not known for its culinary talents. I had a French dip sandwich and salad for dinner, but they were not so good.

what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger

Or so I've heard. Today I decided to put the theory to the test.

We ate a breakfast at H & H of delicious biscuits, scrambled eggs, cantaloupe, coffee, orange juice before setting off on another long day (97 miles between Kadoka, South Dakota and Pierre, South Dakota). The day began like yesterday ended -- with large rolling hills as we travelled along the I-90 access road. It was not my ideal way to start the day (especially given my previously described inability to handle mornings well), but I figured they couldn't last forever... right?

I was not loving life by the first checkpoint at mile 20, and I decided that a second cup of coffee could be useful in helping me to enter the land of the living. When I got back on my bicycle, the rolling hills continued. And then the wind picked up and blasted straight against us, so it became much harder riding. And then the batteries died for my speakers that I use to play books on tape, so I had nothing to distract me from the rough riding.

By the checkpoint at mile 60, I was having to ask Rich for my second pep talk of the trip. It was not a good sign that I was already discouraged, and still had 37 miles to go. Less than a half a mile after the checkpoint, I had my fourth flat tire of the trip. And then it started raining. Dick and Noel, the oldest riders (and the only ones behind me at this point), rode up and helped me change the tire. We crawled against the wind to the next checkpoint at mile 80. This actually went quicker than I thought as I played mind games with myself by not looking at the mileage on my bicycle computer, so by the time we saw Rich at mile 80, I thought we were only at mile 70 or so. However, I then got into my mind that we were a lot speedier than I thought, so miles 80 to 96 took forever. I did manage to smile though as we passed the Varmint Hunter's Association (which I can only imagine is a shooting range?) on the outskirts of town.

We crossed the Missouri River as we rode through Pierre, which is actually more like the Missouri Lake it was so flooded. I'd never seen a river so high -- it covered stores, homes, gardens, and trees on either side of the river. Sandbags were stacked everywhere to prevent its waters from spreading even further. Residents wore shirts that read "The Missouri Flood 2011 -- Together we can stand". We had to spend the night in the middle school as the campsite we planned to use was four feet under water!

One high point for the day was that we crossed into the Central time zone -- just one more to go! :o)

I've tried, in general, to watch what I eat on the trip. I know you'd imagine that it would be impossible to gain weight when you bicycle all the time, but we eat an awful lot and several riders have said that they've gained weight. Seeing how that's not exactly a goal of mine for the trip, I try to not get too carried away. However, fighting the winds all day today made me absolutely ravenous. For dinner, I ate a whole meal-sized cobb salad plus a bowl of broccoli cheese soup plus an oreo sundae, and I felt like I was just getting warmed up. Everyone else seemed to feel the same way, so we also shared an order of pancakes. After that, I reluctantly dragged myself away from the table. I hope this doesn't become a trend!

the badlands

Today we rode just over 100 miles from Rapid City, South Dakota to Kadoka, South Dakota via the stunning Badlands National Park. The amazing scenery, a light tail wind, good cloud cover, and coming with fresh legs off of a rest day made the day quite manageable and I managed an average pace of 14 miles per hour (despite the rolling hills of the last 20 miles). (This was pretty good for me, but it makes me seriously appreciate the riders in the Tour De France who can average around 28 miles or so!)



The Wikipedia entry informs me that badlands are "a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water". Those rocks sure turned out pretty. :o)

We spent the night in the small town of Kadoka and camped in a park there. Very happily, the community pool was just beside the park, so we all spent some time cooling off in the waters there. We ate dinner at H&H Restaurant (I could never find out what it stood for) where we had salad, baked potatoes, fried chicken, ham, and rolls. Kadoka was definitely a small town with the younger residents cruising the main drag. One fellow didn't let the fact that he didn't have a car to cruise in hold him back one back -- he came trucking right on down the rode on his lawnmower with his feet propped up on one side. Only in Kadoka...

Also, I saw this sign in a nearby town and thought it captured the vibe pretty well. Now if you're having second thoughts about whether to attend the dance party, please bear in mind that Golden Warrior is appearing. ;o)

rest (?) day

My to-do list for today’s rest day nearly did me in…

clean bicycle

purchase and replace bike chain

do laundry,

send winter clothes home

clean water bottles

patch tires

charge camera, speaker, phone, and computer batteries

go to ATM

re-pack

blog

stock up on toiletries

Visit to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse

Kathleen and I wanted to rent a convertible and drive up to the old western gambling town of Deadwood, but we just couldn’t squeeze it in. All in all, I’ve concluded that rest days aren’t actually very restful.

the black hills

Today we entered South Dakota and had a gorgeous ride through the Black Hills National Forest and the Custer State Park.



Unfortunately, it seems that a pine beetle epidemic has hit the trees pretty hard.



Today's ride was pretty hilly, but the glorious 15 mile descent out of the Custer State Park made it all worth it.

Today I had my third flat (I always seem to get these when I'm about 10 miles from camp -- right at the bit of the day when you're the most tired!), but I took care of this one by myself, and all went well.

I also had the realization today that it doesn't actually get easy. In my mind, I'd envisioned that the first several weeks would be very difficult as our bodies adapted to the challenge, but then I had envisioned a point at which we'd just get the hang of it and glide the rest of the way across America. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. While I'm sure my body has gotten stronger, each ride is a lot of difficult work. Also, the trip planners count on the fact that we're becoming more fit, and as such, plan longer rides and fewer rest breaks. But I suppose at least we're building character.... right??

We are staying in the South Dakota School of Mines dormitories in Rapid City, South Dakota. I had a talk with a lady who worked at a restaurant near the campus and she told me that the main industries for the area are tourism and agriculture (mainly sweet corn). She said that the legal drinking age used to be 18 in South Dakota but that the federal government threatened to cut South Dakota's highway funding if they didn't raise the age to 21. She said that they were just “country mice” who couldn't get by without the highway funding, so they gave in and the drinking age everywhere in America is now 21. She also invited me back and said "We start serving breakfast at 6, and start serving beer at 7". Well that's very good to know.

The town definitely has a western flair and you'll see stores such as the "Trading Post" and "Frontier Boot Repair".

getting there

For the better part of the morning, I can best be described as a zombie on a bike. My feet are pedalling, but I’m not certain that I’m awake. The only thing that can save me and change from zombie to human in the morning is a cup of coffee. And unfortunately today, poor Noel found out what happens to one who comes between me and my coffee. Even though breakfast is laid out by a group of riders (we split into different "teams" for preparing meals) before 6, we're not supposed to begin eating until 6 o'clock. However, everyone generally has a cup of coffee prior to 6 as they're getting ready in the morning. Noel, who is an older fellow affectionately referred to as a "Noel it all", wandered up to me, tapped his finger on his watch, and asked "Is it 6 o'clock yet?" I glared back and snapped "Are you a crew member?". The poor guy recoiled like he'd been stung by a scorpion. Everyone laughed, and I said I was sorry, but I can't promise that I won't behave similarly if someone tries to come between me and my coffee. :o)

As though further evidence were required that I'm not a morning person, my jersey did the talking for me. It was cold one morning and I put on a sleeveless jersey underneath a long-sleeved jersey so that I could take off the warmer one as it warmed up throughout the day. When it did warm up and I took off the outer jersey, I realized that I'd put my sleeveless jersey on backwards so that all of the pockets were on my tummy instead of my back. I had to high tail it to the bathroom to switch it around before anyone else could notice how silly I was!

The crew members set up a table for lunch that contains different kinds of peanut butter, jelly, breads, etc. and you show up and make your own sandwiches. When I arrive, I’ve used all of my energy on the physical process of getting myself there, and generally don’t have any left for rational thought. I arrive at the lunch table, examine all of the items, and think “Hmm, that’s interesting” and completely fail to comprehend how to put all of the bits together into something useful and edible. One day, they also put out lunch meats, hummus, and salad bits left over from the previous night’s dinner, and that just completely threw me. It took a good five minutes to work it all out and put together a sandwich that was edible. My typical lunch is a graham cracker with smooth peanut butter and honey. I think the silliest thing I’ve eaten is a peanut butter, bacon, and honey sandwich.

I rode for most of the day with Eric, and we talked a lot about Ayn Rand since I’m reading Atlas Shrugged, and his favourite book is Fountainhead. I also had my second flat tire today, and unfortunately forgot to replace my spare tube since I’d used it changing my flat earlier this week. So I called Rich, and he brought a spare tube, but I changed this one (mostly) myself.

The clouds today were so beautiful, fully, and fluffy. In fact, I’m certain that if I were just a bit taller, I could reach up and squeeze them, and they’d be squeezably soft.

I also made up a new game today to keep me occupied. I pretend that the little pebbles on the shoulder are bombs and will explode if my wheel touches them, so I whiz between them, making sound effects as necessary.

I haven't learned many new bicycle skills lately, but it's not for a lack of trying. Two positions that I'm trying to master at the moment are to learn how to ride with my forearms resting on the handle bars and also sitting upright with my hands of the handlebars altogether. Not much progress on either yet, but thankfully no spills during my efforts to learn.

Today we stayed at the Newcastle Senior Center, which is actually a really lovely place. The members don’t reside there, but it’s more of a social club for seniors. They can go to the cafeteria and eat together, go to the family room and hang out, watch TV, and play bridge. I hope that when I’m a senior, I live by such a center.
It’s funny how your body so quickly becomes accustomed to new conditions. I’ve become so used to the hot outdoors, that when I was back in an air conditioned building, I was actually freezing. I wore my coat the whole time we were in the Senior Center.

One of the crew members, Lynn, had a birthday today, so as a group, we got her a t-shirt from the Senior Center that said “You can’t roll back the clock, but you can wind it up again.” They fed us dinner in the cafeteria there, and after dinner, some of us sat around playing silly games like writing down the name of a public figure on a piece of paper, switching them around, taping it to your forehead, and having to guess the figure named on your forehead by asking the other players yes / no questions.

the longest day

I had referred to the previous night’s dinner at a local pizza joint in Sheridan as my last supper. Today was our longest day of the trip at 112 miles. I was not convinced I would survive it.

A few days earlier while swimming in the campground pool, I was discussing (read: whining) with one of the other bicyclers about the route, and wondered if there was a way to break up the 112 miles between Sheridan, Wyoming and Gillette, Wyoming. A lady laying out at the pool overheard our conversation and told us that while there were some towns in between the two cities, they were so small that if you sneezed, you’d miss them. She wasn’t playing…





In one of the towns, there was a single commercial establishment that could meet the resident’s every need – Ted’s Hotel / Café / Bar / Post Office / General Store / Grocery Store / Gas Station.

I figured that my best shot at surviving the day would be just to get it over and done with before the heat of the day. I’ve found that the energy I gain by pacing myself and taking it easy in the morning hours is (more than) offset by the energy that the sun saps out of me. It makes me feel like I’m made out of liquid, and the sun pokes a little hole in me and I drain away to bits. So I hightailed it out of the gates (and the gates opened quite early today at just before 6:00 AM) and made great time through the morning’s 15 mile climb and arrived at the Spotted Horse Café (mile 75) by noon. We had a Coke at the café, and it was a cool, eclectic place that contained all sorts of odds and ends.



We started chatting with a guy there whose job involved collecting natural gas and pressurizing it so that it could be put into the pipeline. I hadn't even thought about the fact that gas is transported at high pressure, so I took the opportunity to educate myself a bit on pipeline transport.

The afternoon stretched on and was filled with rollers – up and down and up and down – all the way into Gillette. I’d reached a snail’s pace by the last 10 miles. The afternoon was hot (in the mid 80’s), but not nearly as bad as it could have been. In previous years, the average temperature for the area is 110 degrees – yikes! I think we must have won some kind of weather lottery this year – we’ve had beautiful and amazing weather for the trip thusfar.

One fun thing I noticed is that in Wyoming instead of waving hello, they hold up their hand in a shape that looks like a steer by extending all fingers except the middle and ring fingers. I wasn't brave enough to try it back, but it's pretty cool.

After rolling into the high school we were staying in that night, I laid around for a good hour before I could be bothered to get my bags and set up camp (although we got to stay inside, so I didn’t have to put up my tent :o)). Even though there was a restaurant ¹⁄₄ mile from the school, it just seemed like entirely too far to walk, so I rounded up a crew for ordering pizza, and we completely devoured it. I slept better than well that night. :o)

buddies

Today, the muscles in my legs, especially my quads, were still tired, and I got scared that it was the beginning of their spontaneous decomposition due to overuse. So I asked Charlton, one of the crew members about it, and he said that it's common to feel more sore after rest days than before, and that I probably wasn't spontaneously falling apart. Phew! He recommended biking 10 - 15 miles on rest days ( :o/ ) to avoid fatigure in the future.

A group of the speedier cyclers went off route today to see the battlefield of Little Big Horn, or Custer's Last Stand, where General Custer and the U.S. Army faced off against and lost to a coalition of the Lakota, Arapaho, and Northern Cheyenne tribes in 1876. Unfortunately, I am not one of the speedy cyclers and didn't think I'd have time to do both.

It's funny how quickly your perspective changes, and how it's the random, little things make you happy. The lunch truck was parked by a gas station, and when I went into the gas station to go the bathroom, some cheetoes caught my eye. I decided to go wild and add cheetoes to the usual lunch of peanut butter and jelly. I saved some for a snack, and the excitement of my splurge kept me going all the way through the afternoon.

I spent most of the day riding with Sarah and Jim, and decided that, as entertaining as my books on tape are, riding with people is much, much nicer and help to break up the long days. As we rode on into the afternoon, it kept getting hotter and hotter. We'd been riding beside the Little Bighorn River for a while, and I'd been eyeing it the whole while, thinking of how nice a little swim would be. Finally, I could hold back no longer. "Anyone want to swim in the river?" I asked Sarah and Jim. Without saying a word, they beelined off the road and started heading for the river... apparently they'd been thinking the same thing too!

The river was bulging at its seams, as are all of the rivers we've encountered, due to the heavy spring rains. It was a bit too deep and swift to get in directly, so we found a nice rock and let our feet hang into the cold water. We sat in silence for a while, watching the swift river curve through the cottonwood trees before us. The dandelions are out in full bloom, and the air is so thick with their dander that if you look up, the dandelions floating in the breeze look just like snow. It was really beautiful. I decided it would be a great time for a snack of cheetoes, so I got them out, and really wanted to scarf them all myself. We all shared though, and I'm pretty sure they tasted cheesier because we shared. It was one of those really amazing moments that becomes one of life's "happy times" you can look back to during tougher times. Jim, who wants to be a writer, and more specifically, a poet, wrote a haiku as we were riding along to commemorate the occassion:

River's running high
Feet dangling [the three-syllable kind of dangling] and cheetoes
Beautiful nothings

We carried on for several hours, but Sarah started to feel unwell after a long stretch with no shade or cloud cover and the sun being particularly intense. So we pulled over and stopped under a tree for a snack, and I sang her "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. After the little rest, she felt better and we moved right along. It's amazing what an inspirational song will do for your spirits. I've tried to teach the crew members some of my favorite inspirational songs so that they can complement pep talks with an inspirational song, but unfortunately they do not seem amused by the idea. (I have a sneaking suspicion I'm the only bicycler that requires pep talks of them -- requesting inspirational songs as well seems to have been too much! :o)) I'm working on my own version of "My Favorite Things" and will write it up here when it's all worked out!

Also, I had my first flat of the trip today. Fortunately, it occurred within 100 feet of the bicycle mechanic's car, and he was able to walk me through all of the steps. I knew how to change a flat on my other bike, but I'd never had a flat on this one, and things are just a little different. The flat was about 10 miles outside of camp, but we carried on over the last 10 miles in the glaring heat and made it in one piece. We'd heard there was a pool at the campground, and the thought of it was all that got us through those last 10 miles. When we got to camp, we went straight to the pool, removing bits of our bike clothing as we went (don't worry Mom -- some, not all of it ;o)) and hopped straight into the pool in our bicycle attire. It felt incredible! :o)

We stayed in a KOA (Kampers [clearly, they cannot spell] of America) campground, and I am pleased to report that I set up my tent properly. It's a good thing too as a big storm hit overnight. The wind whipped the tents around, tossed over bikes, and wreaked havoc with laundry people has left drying on a line. And it was gloriously fun to be in a tent in the middle of a storm. I hope we have some more of those! :o)

the fourth of july

I woke up today, and my legs did not feel rested and refreshed. They felt like lead. It wasn't too big of a problem as we had a pretty gentle, easy ride of 55 miles from Billings to Hardin. It was the perfect temperature and was amazing weather for bicycling. It went pretty quickly, and we were all in camp by 11 am.

This worked out really well, as it was the 4th of July, and we had some celebrating to do! It was actually one of the greatest 4th of July's I've ever had -- I got to bicycle, go to the rodeo, eat an oreo blizzard from Dairy Queen, swim, had an amazing dinner, and saw fireworks. Does life get much better??

On our way through town, we saw signs for the Big Horn County Rodeo that was happening later that day, so we showered over and headed over (and if we had cowboy hats, we would have donned those too!). They began the rodeo with a prayer and singing of the Star Spangled Banner. While they had the traditional bucking broncos...



... they also had several less than traditional events including the sweetheart race, ...



... the baby race, ...



... and pole bending.



Unfortunately, the children did not excel at the "kids on calves" event...




One of the coolest events was one I'd never heard of before -- the Indian Relay Race. Unfortunately, I wasn't clever enough to remember that my camera had a video mode until this event was over. Each rider made three laps around the track riding a horse bareback. At each lap, they'd switch to a new horse, and the way they hopped off of one horse and sprang onto the next, with no saddle to assist with the process was amazing!



One of the (female) bicycler friends I was with joked to another (male) about making a bet on which rider would win the race -- she said "If the blue team wins, I'll make dinner; if the red team wins, you make dinner". Dinner was being catered for us that night, so it wasn't a very meaningful bet, but a man who was sitting with his wife on the row in front of us overheard the comment and remarked "It’s so funny what women will do to get out of making dinner for ya”. I had to bite my lip to keep my mouth shut.

On the way back from the rodeo, we stopped at Dairy Queen, and I got my first ice cream of the trip -- an oreo blizzard. It was heavenly. The campground had a pool, so we went for a dip in the afternoon, and Beyond Basil once again catered dinner. They make the most amazing salads with all kinds of fun flavors and ingredients -- like dried banana chips in a wheat berry salad... different, but definitely amazing! Later in the evening, we saw a few fireworks, but we go to bed so early (I'm talking 8ish), so we didn't get to see too many.

All in all, it was quite close to the perfect day. The only small glitch was, once again, my tent. I thought that getting away with not having to put up my tent on the days we can sleep on the floor inside buildings. It turns out, I forget everything I've learned about erecting the thing each time I have a break from putting it up. Today I went to put it up, and started by putting in the stakes to hold things still. Unfortunately, I put them into the little holes where the tent poles go instead of the loops for the stake, so I had to start all over again. Kathleen was watching it all and wondered aloud how many times it would take me before I put it together correctly the first time. I think she's started taking bets on the matter. I sure hope she's not holding her breath though, because I'm not certain that this is going to happen in the 48 days of the ride!

relaxation station

Today I slept in until 10 am, and it was absolutely glorious. Then I wandered to the nearest place, and had a lovely breakfast. My goal for the day is to move as little as possible, and I’m doing a pretty good job of it. :o)

It’s about 95 degrees in Billings, and there’s no air conditioning here. So we’re all sitting around trying to be perfectly still. It seems that everything in Billings is closed on Sunday (including the drug store!), so we’re mainly just kind of hanging around. Everyone is watching the Tour de France, but perhaps not surprisingly, the last thing that I want to do after all day on a bicycle is watching other people bicycle. Also, the Tour de France is only 2,262 miles – they don’t have nothin’ on us. ;o)

slowing down

Today I woke up, once again, not in the mood for bicycling. Those of you who know me well are probably well aware of the fact that I am not a morning person. Despite waking up at 5:30 am, on average, on this trip, I am still not a morning person. I generally spend the first 10 miles of the ride going fairly slowly to warm up and ease into the day. Today, I just got stuck in that mode and couldn’t seem to pick up the pace.

The ride prior to lunch was beautiful. Lovely scenery. Lovely temperature. And a lovely (though slow) pace.



After lunch it was like I went through a wormhole into another land. The sun showed its might and blazed down upon us throughout the afternoon. The wind turned against us so that now we were having to ride into and fight it. Hills seemed to come out of nowhere. And we entered an area of the state that has recently been flooded, and the water still covered many of the surrounding lands – we saw washed out bridges, flooded homes, and flooded train tracks.

The afternoon went much slower than the morning, and at the last check point at mile 80, I had Rich give me a pep talk. He graciously complied, and it helped a lot. I hope to teach him several of my favourite inspirational songs so that he can sing them to me to complement future pep talks – I have the feeling that there will be many of them!

We rolled into Billings, Montana where we’ll have a rest day (phew!) and stay in the dorms of Montana State University. A catering company, Beyond Basil, provided dinner in a nearby park this evening, and it was so wonderful. They had garlicky gazpacho, all kinds of salads, steaks, cupcakes, and ice cream. It was embarrassing how much I ate (unfortunately, my friend Kathleen did obtain photographic evidence of the amount of food on my plate)!

We picked an interesting time to come to Billings as an Exxon pipeline just broke near here today as decribed in this article.

We also passed through Twodot, Ryegate (home of the “Testicle Festival” -- the testicles of bulls are considered a delicacy and referred to as "Rocky Mountain Oysters"), and Roundup (yep, this is actually a town in Montana). We also passed through Yellowstone County, which is exciting even though we won’t get to go through the Yellowstone Park.

buffalo burgers

Today I saw all kinds of fun wildlife include elk, a turkey and boatloads of sheep and cows. I also came across a mother and baby deer today. They were a bit startled by my approach on bicycle and took off before I could get a good photo. The mother leaped gracefully along, and the little fawn did his best to imitate, but you could tell he could use a few more lessons. They encountered a fence, and the mother bounded right over. The fawn skidded to a halt, took a good look at it, and finally decided to duck underneath. I think it was the right choice for him, although seeing him attempt to hop it may have been very entertaining.

Today’s ride was 99 miles, but somehow it wasn’t really all that bad. It seems that bicycling on the plains is a lot better than bicycling up mountains, which is what it feels like we’ve been doing since day 1! Also, I broke up the day with a dip in the hot springs of White Sulfur Springs. It was divine and very therapeutic. :o)

I haven’t seen so many pine trees lately, but I have seen a whole lot of wheat. In fact today we passed through Wheatland County. The wheat is a light green and the grains on top are a darker gray green. Blowing in the wind, they look far more like a silky, rolling sea than vegetation. The wheat fields have been broken up by little patches of wild flowers, but wheat has definitely dominated the landscape as of late.




Tonight we stayed in a church -- Faith Chapel – in Harlowtown, Pennsylvania. A couple in the area had us over to their house for dinner, and it was really great to be in an actual home after being a migrant for several weeks. I sat on a real couch, played with their dogs, and ate an amazing dinner. They made buffalo burgers with bleu cheese, and they were mouth wateringly amazing!

the continental divide

I think I woke up on wrong side of the mat today. I’m not sure what the problem was, but I just woke up cranky and not in the mood for bicycling. Delightful cinnamon rolls provided for breakfast by the Avon Café helped to improve the situation, but they were offset by the lack of coffee, without which I am grumpy under any circumstances.

We began the day with a long climb 12 miles up into the Rockies via the Macdonald Pass. We reached the Continental Divide, which will be the highest point we’ll reach throughout the trip at 6,356 feet. Most anticlimactically, there was no sign indicating the Continental Divide. Of all the possible photos I could take on this trip, that was the one I wanted – me and my bicycle beside a sign saying “Continental Divide”. I’d hoped that the sun would be setting dramatically in the background and that I was hoping to look quite tough. But, there was no sign at all. And it was frigid up there. So I grumbled even more and began the steep descent on the east side of the Rockies shivering all along the way. Most of the other riders blasted down the mountain reaching speeds of over 40 miles per hour, but I hate the feeling of going too fast and being out of control, so I took pride in not going a beat over 30 miles per hour the whole way down (my poor brakes!)



It was still before 9:00 when I reach Helena, the capital of Montana, at the bottom of the mountain. I decided to take a little coffee break – perhaps I’d be better behaved when caffeinated and I had a chance to take a step back and get my act together. Today was one of our shorter days at 61 miles, so I took my time plodding along until I reached the small town of Winston. I stopped to go to the bathroom at a store there and grabbed a Diet Coke to drink when I got to camp. I was still 12 miles away from Townsend, the town we’d be staying in overnight, but at that point, I just decided I was ready to be done for the day and plowed through the remaining miles averaging just under 20 miles per hour, arriving just before 2:00 at Broadwater High School, our boarding location for the evening.

Fortunately, we were allowed to stay inside on the gym floor, so I managed to squeak by without putting up my tent for another night. I really don’t mind doing it at all. The problem is that I never manage to put it up quite right, and I look like an idiot the whole time trying. This is never a good combination. In fact, my friend Kathleen said that if she ever needs comedic material for her blog, she’s just going to put up a video of me assembling my tent. I really must work on this!

As we had a good bit of spare time in the afternoon, several of use went to a café in town. The floors were carpeted, the bathroom signs were labelled ‘Cowboys’ and ‘Cowgirls’, and a large sign feature the face of Osama Bin Laden with the word “JUSTICE” written at the bottom graced the walls. Our waitress' shift was ending as we were leaving, and we saw her getting into a small convertible with a license plate that read “I KANDY”.

We had sandwiches at the high school for dinner, and I think that too much spare time made us turn silly. As we sat cross-legged on the gym floor eating our sandwiches, someone said something funny. And like a domino effect, everyone starting giggling. Even when we’d forgotten the original comment, we carried on giggling because it was so funny how tickled everyone else was. We ended up in stitches rolling laughing on the gym floor. It seems that everyone is really starting to click and to get to know each other well enough to be themselves, which is great. It’s so much nicer to do a difficult thing with a group of friends than with a group of strangers.

I’d really like to try to get a feel for the towns I’m bicycling through rather than just passing through them without interacting with them at all. Most evenings I’m too tired to carry on a reasonable conversation, so I haven’t been out or met too many people along the way. Hopefully I’ll be able to remedy that in the future, but in the meantime I figured checking out the town paper might help to give me a feel for each town. So today I picked up a copy of the local paper, The Townsend Star, and listed a few headlines below.

“Canyon Ferry Walleye Festival winner net small fish, big profits”

“Parties mean taking care of your guests” – If you’re having a 4th of July party where alcohol will be served, make plans for your guests to have a safe ride home.

“Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the Montana Department of Agriculture encourage Montanans and visitors to “inspect, clean, and dry,” boats, trailers and fishing gear to “Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers!”

“T-Ballers wrap up rainy season”

On the community calendar, I noted that the “ Broadwater Rod & Gun Club Open trap Shooting” has several upcoming events

“Big Bull Bar & Grill opens in Winston”
I also see an invitation to Vacation Bible School with Faith Baptist Church. This year’s theme is “TREASURE QUEST”

And lastly, there’s an advertisement for the upcoming Broadwater Countary Fair on August 3 – 7, 2011

rain, rain, go away!

We awoke at the university dorms, and had a buffet style breakfast in the cafeteria. The century ride a few days ago nearly did me in, and here I was going into a four day stretch with three rides over 90 miles. I was apprehensive to say the least.

When we began, it was very cool out and we all bundled up again. We spent most of the day as we’d spent the past several days, going along State Route 200. We passed a sign for Garret Ghost Town, which sounded very intriguing, but it was 12 miles off the route and we had a lot of miles to cover that day. Despite being a long day (at 99 miles), it was actually a really good day. It’s amazing what a day off can do for your body. Also, I think the best way to get through long days it to really just push yourself and get it over with. It’s much easier to maintain mental composure for 8 – 9 hours in the blazing heat than for 10 -11 hours. So I just pushed right through it all today, and that seemed to work out well. We did do a lot of climbing today (3,500 feet) as confirmed by the fact that my lotion all came squirting out of the bottle as soon as I opened it in camp that evening.

We did go through one exceptionally buggy bit, and the air was thick with bugs. Each time I breathed in, I must have eaten 10 bugs. Another rider commented “Well, at least we won’t be low on protein today.” I’d just put on sunscreen, so my eyes were still a bit sticky and it acted as a trap for the bugs. By the end of the ride, my arms were so covered with bugs that I could see more bug than arms.

It had been overcast and humid all day, but just after the buggy bit, the bottom seemed to drop out of the sky. It didn’t last for more than 20 minutes, and thankfully I was with a group of four, so we were able to stay in a line and help shield each other from the wind. The rain drops were really fat, but I didn’t feel any hail. A few others were further out (serves them right for going so fast! :o)), and got caught in a hail storm. My poor friend, Kathleen, got a flat tire and had to change it while being hailed on.

The Dixie Chick’s ‘Wide Open Spaces’ and Jo Dee Messina’s ‘Bring on the Rain’ both came to mind today. There is just so very much open space out here. I could look in all directions and see for miles and miles without seeing another person, car, or building. The terrain is rolling hills covered with bright green grass and dark pine trees. The contrasting greens against the blue sky and fluffy white clouds provide an amazing backdrop for such an adventure!



As I mentioned before, the areas I put pressure on all day are really starting to feel it. My hands and wrists ache after supporting my torso all day, my rear end wants to do anything but sit on a bicycle saddle, and even my feet start to go numb from the continuous pressure of pushing down on the pedals. To mitigate this strain, I’ve explored some alternative positions for bicycling. One position I’ve thought through (though not yet attempted) is sitting side saddle on the bike and then leaning down and putting one hand on each pedal and circling them round. The only problem I can see with this position is that it wouldn’t be ideal for seeing the road ahead of me. As such, I’ve put aside further exploration of this position for the time being, but I still have several alternative positions I’m considering. I have also proposed the idea of hooking up my bicycle to the back of the support van with a rope and having them tow me along on bike. (I figured as long as my legs are spinning, it’ll still count as “bicycling” – right?) The crew members were not amenable to the idea.

Another problem I’ve encountered is that my joints seem to have gotten the (obviously false) impression that I’m getting older. They ache and whine and moan and generally seem to be displeased with this whole cross country bicycling business. After the 100-plus mile day, they asked me “What in the heck was that?? We’ve always been so good to you, carrying you faithfully around, and then you ask us to do that??” I didn’t know what to tell them. So instead I attempt to appease them with a fairly absurd amount of anti-inflammatories, pain killers, ice baths, and a cream that smells of menthol and is supposed to ease aches and pains. All in all, they seem to be taking it as well as could be hoped.

I’ve also passed another milestone today. When the ride leaders mentioned that we’d be going through areas with no towns, gas stations, or any other restrooms available for tens of miles, I blanched. Everyone else seems perfectly comfortable using the bathroom in the great outdoors, but I was not excited at all by the prospect. In one of the more forsaken stretches today, I knew I had to go. But I convinced myself I’d be able to make it to the next town. I pedalled quicker and kept repeating “You can make it, you can make it, you can make it”. All at once, I realized that I could not make it. At that point, I’d left it too late to scout out an ideal spot, so I just went careening off the road and hopped into the nearest bush. Unfortunately, it seems that this will just be the first of many such woodland excursions!

In the evening we stayed in Avon, Montana – population 124. In fact, the town is so small they had to point it out on our cue sheet – “This is Avon!” We stopped at the Avon Café on the way into the campground, and the people of Avon seemed really nice. There was no need to lock up our bikes, and when I dropped $10 on the ground without noticed, someone kindly picked it up and handed it back to me instead of hanging on to it himself.

The Avon Café catered dinner at our campground and it was all great, -- especially the pies. They brought all sorts of pies – coconut cream, cherry, oreo, banana cream , lemon meringue, blueberry, and peach – and we all took a piece and shared them around. It was amazing!