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)