Monty Python Moments

Sometimes life is so much more odd than anything you could ever imagine.

First there was the man who drove up to us all at a SAG stop.
He asked if we were biking cross country?    
Yes, we are. 
Are you going on Highway 54?                      
Yes we are. 
That's a really dangerous road.    pause           
Thanks for letting us know. Say, is it always so windy?
This is no wind, this is just a breeze.  It'll be worse soon.

Have you ever seen an entire group of people just look blankly at someone? 
He sure was friendly, though.

Then at the lunch stop, we stood waiting to place our order. The gentleman making the food chatted with us, as if we were already privy to his entire life history, and had already been engaged in a conversation with him, (because apparetly we were in the middle of it), about how he was arguing with some woman, and "he said", "she said" monologue, and a whole lot of words I cannot publish.  This was all with a huge smile on his face.  Finally he took our order. 
He gave us free chocolate cookies later. 
He was sure nice, though.

Then there was the cow.  Laying in someone's driveway.  Outside the fence.  On her side.  Huge.
I thought she was asleep, so I made no shouting comments to Jeff as we rode by in the hurricane force winds.  He never saw it.
Apparently, she was dead.
Apparently you can put your dead animals on the side of the road for rendering collection.

Holy Grail - "Bring out your dead" came to mind, among other things.

It was an odd day.  Toto - we are in Kansas.

Dorothy's "house"

Dorothy's room

Wheat Splendor

PS - Wicked WIND of the West...

Yookin' Dood!

Yookin' dood...
That's what two year old Ella says, and that's what it felt like today.

I guess it's not uncommon after a tough century, to look at the next day with less than a song in your heart. I think that's how we all feel after a challenge - a bit worse for wear, and needing to reboot.

The amazing thing is the next morning, you just  saddle up, and move out.

When I told Andrea, one of our kids, that we only had 72 miles today - she thought that my perception of distance has been permanently altered. Even more twisted is that today, out of my own mouth came:
"You know, I just love climbing."
What?

irrigation circles

I spent a good part of today with a smile on my face as we passed irrigation systems, countless silos and amber waves of grain.



So I guess we were not only feeling good,,,we were yookin' dood as well

Cow - 'Nother cow.

"Actually I think that was the same one." (Twister)
We got to Texas. It was hot, hard, and full of headwinds.
As another rider said , "It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't a blowtorch on my...bottom."
And as Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that."

Bullet holes riddle the sign.  Nice.

We're in Dalhart, TX - home of XIT and thousands and thousands and thousands of cows.  Back to being a vegetarian.                  

This grain feeder has 70,000 cows.
It is one of seven grain feeders in Dalhart.

They would follow us, mini stampedes.
Looked like a car lot. Cows as far
as the eyes could see.

Say What?

This is what I said today:
Oh my...
Oh gosh...
Oh my goodness...
Holy Moly...
Wow...

Because:

Wide and wild
Majesty

Vast

Today's Stats:

Low - 29.9 degrees (6 am departure)
High - 100 degrees (2 pm)
Miles - 110 (climb 4,000, decend 6,000)
Time - 8.5 hours (in the saddle - ow)
Animals - Cows, bobcat, elk (oh my)
Climbed - The Wall (thank goodness for NH training)
Marital Status - Stable (whew)

1,000 down, 2415 to go...we'll be home soon Lisie J.

Heads or Tails?

When I told people what we were doing, they would ask what route we were going to take across the country.  When I informed them we would fly west and cycle east, their response was always the same, "Oh good, the wind will be at your back."

Since we've been cycling we have had the wind at our backs, and in our fronts, and slamming us sideways, and even had our own "Auntie Em, Auntie Em" moment (rumour has there will be more in Kansas.  Appropriate)  These winds have names: headwinds, tailwinds, and crosswinds.  But the exciting part is that you can have variations of each: a head - crosswind, a tail - crosswind, or a combination of the two given the terrain.

Today was another climbing day.  The climbs just are...you have to get philisophical about that.  But the winds take your breath away. We weigh around 400 pounds (the bike is fortyish, divide the rest,and be kind).  The wind can take us and push us sideways, or forward, or back despite our human force.                                        It truly is the force of nature. 

 

The amazing thing about it is the vegetation and critters are all adaptable to it.  And the sound.  The sound of the wind truly howling through mountain passes and ridges, and even through our wheel spokes...that's mighty.

Mental Toughness

Tracy Lerner is the owner and director of CrossRoads adventures.  Each evening before supper, we get together with her to go over the next day's ride and cue sheet. (Our cue sheet is clipped on Jeff's back for me to read and direct.  That distracts the fact that I am looking at his posterior all day.) 
As we go through the cue sheet she tells us about potential hazards and pitfalls - literally pit falls.  One of the things I admire about this woman is the fact that she is honest and forthright.  There is no innuendo, no sugar coating, no false optimism.  So - you can imagine my dismay, when the day before yesterday, during Route Rap she informed us that the next day's ride was all uphill. All.

She was true to her word. (Where's that sugar coat when you need it?)  Jeff and I climbed for eight hours and fifteen minutes yesterday.  We had a gain of 5,500 feet.  On a single bike, it would have been challenging.  On a tandem - grim.  The road was full of false flats and false summits.
The pavement was at times benevolent, and others - a brutal reminder that your bottom is indeed attached to nerve endings. Lots of them. The impact on your body and spirit are palpable.

Jeff and I trained with a series of DVDs called Spinervals, with Coach Troy Jacobson.  One of our favorites was called Mental Toughness.  I found myself closing my eyes yesterday (benefit of being a stoker) thinking - no Coach Troy, not in the luxury of our home gym, but here - this moment, right now, requires mental toughness.

Three good things came from this:  we arrived in Santa Fe for our rest day today, the views were amazing, amazing, amazing, and finally, I told Jeff that he now holds a better understanding of the discomfort and forging ahead mentality of labor.
He wasn't so amused.

Not so tough chick - just stubborn.

In the distance - what we climbed over.

Miles around us of absolutely nothing but trees, sand, soil and rocks.

Cool rocks...

Myth Busters

Did you know:
Wearing two pairs of bike shorts does not make your hips look big. They do help with extreme saddle sores. TMI?

Did you know:
Truckers will pull into the far lane on the Interstate if they can, so I can stop feeling impending doom?

Did you know:
Thirty-five mile an hour winds can stop a tandem going downhill?

Did you know:
Road construction guys are really nice, and take pity on you if you're biking uphill for 5 miles in their construction zone, and will allow you to drive on the no-traffic-no-debris-new-pavement (if you duck and weave through construction vehicles)?

Best 5 mile climb EVER! Thanks construction guys!

Did you know:
There are lava fields in New Mexico?

Lava field

Did you know:
Aliens have their own brewery?

An Area 51 Fave

Did you know:
"No, no, bad dog - go home", works on yard dogs whose names I'm sure include "Pit" and "Bull", (close encounters of a canine kind)?

Did you know:
The state police in New Mexico are kind and observant?
SP - "Ma'am, you weren't riding on the highway were you?"
Me - "No sir, we were riding on this lovely new pavement."
SP - "Good. Ma'am, that's a big bike."
Me - "...yes officer, it is."

Did you know:
Even the smallest towns have one church and one tattoo parlor?

Did you know:
Jeff can relax?

Who knew?

a picture is worth...

There just are not enough words to explain this.

There is no way to describe the depth and the expanse of what we see.

There is no photo we can take that can capture the wildness of the wilderness.

(Despite my best efforts JP.)

Take a Hike

How do you get across the country? One step at a time. No, really, one step...

As a group we set out at different times in the morning given our individual paces. As a behemouth tandem, we are clearly not pace setters, and usually pull up the rear on long climb days.
Today was only 88 miles, (yes indeed, I said only), and we were in rolling hill territory - which is a tandem's delight. We were cranking along - but ended up at a halt. All of us. Two bridges were out, and there was only one lane of travel with no shoulder.

So - what's a biker to do. Stand around eating lollipops until Mighty Tracy negotiates with the state to give us right of passage through the construction zones, and on new pavement...a bit by bike, but mostly on foot.  So even though we started out as individuals today, when presented with an obstacle - we forged ahead - together.  I liked that. 

(Makes the four flats less painful..  Now about my sunburn...)

F.L.A.T.

Let's see...

We have been riding a good chunk of our trip through California and Arizona via highway. Clearly, there are both good and bad with that passageway. The good - the views. We have gotten to watch as the terrain has changed from urban, to outskirts, hills, moutain passes to deserts. Today we went through the painted deserts, and headed for the flats. As the mountains receded, it was almost as if they were panning out to the sides. What was left was vast open spaces framed with ridges in the distance, intersected with long lines of rails and trains, and the occasional red rocks that seemed to grow and rise in the arid vegetation.

I had thought that the long hours in the saddle might bring some bouts of boredom, but - nope, not a chance. The excitement of the day was driving through a "dust devil". As we rode next to a 50 car train, I could see the dust picked up by the wind and the rush, and it came slamming toward us. In seconds we were enveloped in a brown dust storm, pelting us with sand and tumble weeds and providing minimal visibility. Jeff manhandled us through, and we enjoyed the roughage of grit in our teeth for the next hour.

As we rode in the new flat terrain, Jeff honed his skills on another kind of flat...three of them to be exact.  All the riders are picking up wire shards from truck tire debris.  We keep tally each day.  We came in second today, but we're the only ones who got to walk in on the exit ramp...out of tubes.



Today's score:
94 miles
104 degrees
8.5 hours
plenty of perky prairie dogs
tons of trains
leaping lizards
wigwams
Route 66
and we did indeed "stand on the corner of Winslow, Arizona"...

Here Comes the Sun

Prescott - Phoenix - Manchester - New London - Plymouth - Phoenix - Flagstaff in thirty six hours.

Back to good folks...

Everyone taking in the view

...and the kindness of CR to arrange this eclipse for us...