Greg, in Texas
Looking West on HWY 90
Looking East on HWY 90. Does this look familiar?
1/19/2010
Day 76
56 miles
We awoke in our nice warm room at the hostel and quickly packed up our gear in anticipation of a long day of riding. We got some groceries in Marathon before we left and rolled out of town at around 10:45. What a glorious day of riding! As soon as we set off we knew today was going to be good. We had a great tailwind and with the exception of the first 10 miles of a barely noticeable uphill section, we were riding on a slight downhill all day with a great tailwind. The scenery was very much the same for most of the day but we enjoyed every minute of our fast-paced “big wheelin'” as I call it. “Big Wheelin'” means that you are pedaling in the highest of your three (on touring bikes) chainrings, in other words, you are going fast. At one point we had so much energy and good spirits that I told Greg, “I'm going to catch you, speed demon” and tried to race ahead of him. He got the hint and started cranking down hard until his spedometer read 30mph, on the flat, carrying the BoB trailer and panniers. I quit the race at 25 mph. What fun!
We ended up reaching Sanderson, 56 miles away, at around 2:45. We made our whole day in 4 hours of riding. We would have gone further, but the next town is Dryden, 20 miles further, population 10. So we decided to stay in town and enjoy a leisurely evening. First we went out for ice cream, then decided to check out a local cafe that a woman here at the Canyons RV Park told us about. We got there and after being seated, realized that all they had on the menu was burgers. We didn't want to be rude and leave this little place, so we sucked it up and ordered burgers for dinner, with Frito pie. Come to find out, Frito pie is Fritos covered with hamburger meat and cheese. Well, believe me this is not how we usually eat and I assure you that we will be doing a fast or cleanse of some sort when the trip is over. This trip is just one big learning experience. Greg still wants to try a deep fried Oreo when we get to the Deep South. Who knows, maybe we will even get to try alligator.
Dani
2 comments:
Don't worry about the hamburger: the metabolic overdrive required to bicycle cross country will neutralize it. You did the virtuous thing.
Speaking of cleansing, I drank deeply from the well at the 4H park east of Eads, Colorado on the south side of the road. The locals in town were aghast. And they were right. It was jet propulsion the next two days.
Years later, reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, I found out what happened near Eads. These bicycle trips have a way of weaving time together.
-John Kuehne
Thanks John :)
I'm glad you thought so too. We packed some iodine to prevent the jet propulsion if it is necessary.
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