Day 18-22

Day 18

Today was a rest day in Boulder. I had grand plans to sleep in until some late hour of the morning, but promptly woke up at 6:30a because I couldn’t sleep anymore. Oh well. I went for a short run and then spent the rest of the morning updating my blog entries and pictures. A local reporter called two cancer hospitals in the area yesterday and told them we might be dropping by; however, I didn’t get the memo until late last evening. Unfortunately, whoever took the memo only wrote down the contact info for someone at one of the hospitals not both. I gave the hospital a call, expecting to be able to bring the entire team over but they told me we’d significantly out number patients (not good) so we ended up sending only a few riders. This worked out well though—those riders got to speak to someone who had recently been diagnosed with leukemia, and I think the riders were all very touched by the experience. A couple of them dedicated their ride to the man the next day. While those riders were at the hospital, a few of us went to local bike shops. A friend of mine from Hawaii met us at one. I only got to talk to him for 15 or 20 minutes, but it was great to see him. Hopefully next time we’ll catch up for a longer period of time! This evening we had two families hosting us for dinner so we split the team in half and half went to each house. The house I went to for dinner was home to two of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Bill has biked across the country a couple times and Mary Jo became a marine archaeologist in Israel in her mid-40s. If they’re not good examples of being active and always seeking new adventures, I’m not sure what a good example is. I really enjoyed meeting and talking to them. After dinner, everyone met back at the church at which we are staying for a team meeting. We talked about the usual safety and van issues, and then one of the riders brought up ride dedications. The group talked about how we were doing our ride dedications and people feeling pressure to have to have a new person to dedicate their ride to everyday. Feeling any sort of pressure during ride dedication is definitely not what our organization is about and in the end, we decided to change a few things, including not videotaping our dedications. I was really proud of the group and the discussion we had. People were very passionate about dedicating their rides and it showed when they added their opinions to the discussion. A few people went to explore Boulder after the meeting. I sat around for a bit talking and then decided to go to bed. Apparently I woke up at 2a when people came back and was having a very nonsensical conversation. All I remember is that I was trying to convince my boyfriend that he couldn’t build roads there…wherever there was.

Day 19

Today we rode from Boulder to Ft. Collins. I was driving today, and I dedicated my day to Kevin Seiter, the father of a friend of mine, who had squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. I had to clean a few things out of the van today before we left and then our hosts gave us more leftovers than we could eat. Fortunately, one of our hosts knew how to recycle everything and mentioned taking extra food to a homeless shelter. We happily donated what we couldn’t take. A couple of our hosts road with the team out of town, which is always a treat. There were even a few kids who rode the first couple miles! We only had one rest stop today, and it was packed with fresh fruit, which we hadn’t seen much of lately. I think everyone enjoyed it. While driving, I was talking to the rider who had hurt his ankle, and we had a really good discussion about why one would or would not want to get a full cast. I’m obviously not a medical professional and at the end of our discussion, I told him to call our team doctor and ask his opinion. I really appreciated his frankness. Later in the day, the doctor told him he didn’t need a full cast, which made the rider happy and me relieved that at least for the next several weeks, I didn’t have to worry anymore about whether or not he needed to see another doctor. The rider is on his way to health! We arrived at our host’s house in Ft. Collins around lunch time. They had a tent outside with tables and a huge spread of food in the kitchen. Everyone dug in and enjoyed immensely…and then we found out there was more. They had arranged for a couple of personal trainers to come stretch us out, for a massage therapist to give massages, for full access to a local sports club and even more food at 5p. Wow. I joined a few people at the sports club and went on a 10 mile run. Ft. Collins has great bike paths! After showering, I met up with the half of the team who had gone to check out New Belgian brewery and went back to our host’s house. Our hosts had a huge dinner prepared, and around 6:30p what seemed to be the whole neighborhood appeared for dessert…homemade ice cream! We gave a presentation about Texas 4000 and answered everyone’s questions. Afterwards, I had my massage and waited, watching the bike mechanic, until he finished the last bike. We were so grateful for the tune-ups (and in some cases a little more) that he provided for our bikes. They were much in need.

Day 20

Today we rode from Ft. Collins, CO to Laramie, WY, and I dedicated my ride to Dana Dugan. Our hosts provided a huge breakfast, including the best bran muffins I’ve ever tasted. One of our hosts and one of his cycling buddies rode the first 20 miles with us. We headed out of town on bike paths again to avoid the traffic. I am loving Colorado bike paths (when they’re paved)! The scenery heading out of Colorado and into Wyoming was beautiful. We did quite a bit of climbing today relative to what we’d done so far (excluding Mt. Evans) and reached the highest point on our journey yet (8600+ ft., again, excluding Mt. Evans). The wind picked up a little in the afternoon, but wasn’t too bad. The locals told us that there was no wind today. I think I should probably be concerned if this is “no wind.” We arrived at the church in the early afternoon. Our hosts were waiting for us (with snacks!) at the church. They had already divided us into host family houses, and as soon as everyone was in, we were sent on our way to our host families to shower and change. Enroute to my hosts house, I got a tour of the University of Wyoming and Laramie. There is quite a bit of development going on there and the university has a bunch of new buildings. There is also a cancer center in town, which has been open for four or five years, but unfortunately, I didn’t know about it in advance and we didn’t have the opportunity to visit—next year’s team should definitely try to go! The group reconvened at one of the hosts houses at 6p or so for a taco potluck. I got to meet and talk to a bunch of the other hosts, which was a lot of fun. After dinner we headed back to our hosts house and spent the next few hours talking and relaxing. We didn’t have a particularly long day, but I was falling asleep in my chair by 9p!

Day 21

Today was Laramie to Medicine Bow, WY. I dedicated my ride today to a woman named Bunny who I met yesterday when we arrived at the church—she has been breast cancer-free for six years now! I woke up this morning and my lungs were a little tight. I’m allergic to cats, so if I sleep in the same house as them the tightness tends to happen, but it goes away in a few hours if I’m not around them (which it did during the ride). We had a great breakfast this morning. While eating it though I was talking to people to see if we could get one of the riders some altitude sickness medication. She’s been struggling quite a bit and we’re staying at elevation for awhile (and already have been for a week), so I wanted to make sure she had whatever people had recommended for her. We got that worked out though and had one of the drivers pick up the medicine at a local pharmacy. Right before our ride dedication this morning I was talking to the woman who organized our stay for a bit. We were staying at an Episcopal church and she told me that the Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferies Schori used to do deep sea research before receiving the call to the priesthood. For those who don’t know me well, religion is something I’ve always been fascinated with and I love going to different churches. I’d like to learn more about Bishop Jefferies Schori because her story sounds really interesting. I was really glad I got to talk to this host about her. The ride today was relatively flat with some rolling hills and little wind. Some of the riders were setting off fireworks at the first aid station (nothing burned down and no one was hurt), and the second aid station passed by uneventfully except for some dancing by two of the riders. Eight miles after this aid station, we stopped at a house made of dinosaur fossils. Apparently they are still pulling fossils out of the bluff behind the house and one of the dinosaurs they’ve pulled from the hill resides in the Smithsonian. All the local schools take field trips out to see the dig sight and house/museum. We arrived in Medicine Bow in the early afternoon. I got to sit and chat with some of our hosts for a bit while others took shower, which was nice. Around 5p, a lot of the church members came over and we had a big spaghetti dinner. Afterwards, we gave a presentation and answered all sorts of questions about the ride. The pastor wants to ride next year and asked if I could leave him an application! I’m not sure that’ll work, but its definitely clear he and the others here appreciate what the group is doing. After dinner we wandered over the Virginian, an old hotel here, which is apparently where they shot a movie and is named after some hotel in a book (I’m not sure which one). Inside the bar, there are pictures of all the famous outlaws and a couple notes about the deeds for which they became infamous. Its now closing in on bedtime and I’m definitely ready for some sleep. We have three 100 mile days ahead of us before we reach Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

Day 22

I dedicated my ride today to Hank Ciocca, a friend of a family friend who battled with a rare form of brain cancer and passed away earlier this year. I was thinking about Hank as I rode today in windier and hillier conditions than we had encountered thus far. The ride was from Medicine Bow to Casper, WY and was just over 90 miles long. We got up early this morning, had breakfast and were off in an effort to avoid as much wind as possible. In general, the day was very sunny…but cold. There are only a handful of us left in the arm/leg warmer challenge. This challenge is to see who can go the longest without wearing arm and/or leg warmers (Mt. Evans excluded). It would have been a nice day to lose the challenge, but I had packed both my arm and leg warmers at the bottom of my stuff sack. Oops. The ride today was relatively uneventful. We had a great downhill at one point that lasted for several miles and was relatively straight. The wind in my ears was incredibly loud as I flew down the hill. We had a rest stop at the bottom where the drivers got creative with their attire (or lack thereof), and at every rest stop, including that one, we did the usual pushups. I got to ride the last 30 or so miles today by myself. It was great to be left alone with my thoughts and to simply ride at my own pace. In triathlon there are strict no drafting rules for long distance races, so I’ve been used to riding my bike, regardless of weather condition, by myself, but I haven’t done that much on this ride. I paused at one point to snap a picture of a roadside historical marker…for the Oregon Trail! We arrived in Casper and stored our bikes at our hosts’ shop before driving to their house. We haven’t had to cart the whole team around in the van much lately, and there was stuff everywhere in the back of the van. This was super frustrating, as the one thing we go over almost everyday and definitely at every weekly meeting, is that people need to get their personal stuff out of the van and into their duffel bags. Although this issue may seem trivial, you would be surprised at how quickly and how much stuff accumulates. I ended up putting all the random stuff in a trash bag (not to throw it all out) and telling people they needed to claim their stuff and put it in their personal bags (I may have had a fairly annoyed tone in my voice when I did this). We drove down a lot of gravel roads towards our hosts’ house before turning into a driveway. Our hosts were there to greet us with a warm welcome. After showing us around, about half of us decided to go canoeing. We loaded up the canoes on a trailer and someone drove us up the river a bit and helped us put the canoes in the water. It was great to be out on the water—very relaxing! We arrived back at the house in time to enjoy dinner, and at present, everyone is relaxing some more and watching movies—a luxury we have not had much of on this trip but which everyone seems to be thoroughly enjoying.