Out of the Frying Pan & Into the Fire

June 27, 2012

Well, I've got some catching up to do.  I believe that we last left off just about the time that we got to Milford Utah.  That was a long day, with 83 miles between Baker and Milford and nothing in between.  That is there was nothing useful to cyclists, no water, shade (to speak of) or anything else that you might imagine we would want to avail ourselves of.  There weren't even any tanning salons or aromatherapy spas along the way!

We set out early, with Dennis getting about a 20 - 30 minute head start.  We finally caught up with him just as he was getting ready to begin his descent of the second of three passes that we had to climb that day.  Again he had a 30 or more minute lead when we took off.  The nice thing about cycling in Nevada is the descents.  Hey, that's the nice thing about cycling anywhere!  The descent from Wah Wah Summit was a good 15 miles long, with the last 10 or more miles being a dead straight run.  The next pass, Frisco Summit, was then 15 miles of uphill...  At about the 63 mile mark on the day, and about 5 on the climb to Frisco Summit, we decided to stick out our thumbs.  Riley would say, "There's a vehicle coming."  I'd turn around to have a look, and say, "It will be 10 minutes before it gets here, let's keep moving."  Sure enough, it would take about 10 minutes.  Those a some very long straightaways.

One thing that I have come to believe about Nevada is that the terrain and climate may be inhospitable and foreboding, but not the people.  After attempting to catch a ride using my 'keep moving until they get close, then stop and put out the thumb' method a couple of times, I told Riley that I thought we should get off the bikes and try to look needier.  Sure enough, I don't think that 3 eligible vehicles* passed us before we had a lift!  (By eligible vehicle, I mean pick up truck with room in the back.)

June 28, 2012

Well, another day has gotten by without a posting.  I am trying to write so that I can post when I have wifi available, but even that has been challenging.  I have talked to a couple of other cyclists who are either currently blogging, or have done so on previous trips, and everyone is in agreement: blogging is a chore!  Take yesterday, for example.  We rode from Eads Colorado to Tribune Kansas, a distance of about 58 miles.  It was hot - abour 110 degrees when we were rolling into Tribune.  We had a relatively early start and were done riding by 2:00.  The county pool was open, and there is no charge for passing cyclists.  A swim was in order!  And food.  All this riding tends to make a guy hungry.  And when we got to town, we met a west-bound rider who had just rolled in, so we had to get to know one another.  Find the park. Find a brew.  Find more food.  Oh, and by the way, I don't think that anyone really feels like cooking after these long, hot days.  You've got to get to bed early because in order to make the mileage before it gets insufferably hot,  you want to be on the road as close to sunrise as possible...

We did get to the library for a couple of hours, but then had connection issues with the wifi, and I also had to take care of some official business with my credential application, so at the end of the day, even though I had written something, it was very incomplete and did not get posted.

New Train of Thought

Riley and I are sitting here in the Heritage Hotel in Dighton Kansas, doing laundry.  The hotel is the only place in town with a coin-operated facility, and we were steered here by some friendly people at the city swimming pool.  Dighton also allows passing cyclists to swim for free, so we will no doubt be doing that later, but getting the stink out of some clothes was definitely top priority.

How, you may ask, did you get to Colorado?  What happened to Utah?  I have received this very question, and here's the answer:  The day that we met Bob was the day we rode (with Denis) from Milford UT to Beaver UT.  It was a short jaunt of less than 40 miles.  During this ride, Riley's bike was behaving badly - not shifting properly, chain jumping, etc.  After my hair was properly shorn, we made our way to our camp for the night and I got right to work on the bike.  Well, the darn thing just wouldn't behave, so a trip to an actual bike shop was indicated.  The nearest one was in Cedar City.  Cedar City was supposed to be on our route, but because of a major landslide, a section of the route was closed, so we had detoured to Beaver.  Now we were looking at retracing about the last 20 miles we had ridden, then down too Cedar City, then retracing our route once again...  The part that was unavoidable was the need to get to a bike shop.

With all of these considerations, Denis continued on the detour that we had mapped out and wished us well in getting the bike repaired.  He was up before dawn to hit the road.  Bob, who was heading due east over a major pass, rose at about the same time that we did because he intended to try hitchiking over the mountain.  Riley and I decided that we could limp along to Cedar City - a distance of about 55 miles - or we too could try our luck with the thumb once again.  2 rides and about 2 hours later, were delivered to the doorstep of Bike Route in Cedar City.  Mark, the proprietor, was about as flummoxed as I was, but he was open to my imput, and after resetting the bottom bracket (I did not have the tools for that job), the front derailleur was once againg shifting all the way to the top chainring.  A new chain took care of the jumping problem, and Riley was once again ready to ride.

I'm hearing all of those voices out there: "Hey, you're  still in Cedar City, which is southwest Utah.  What happened to the rest of the state?"  The short answer is that our stint with the carnival made a lasting impression, and that impression was the idea of going through Denver to see old friends (and not climb the Rockies on our own steam).  So, because things got kind of turned around with our need to go to Cedar City, and the fact that Cedar City is an actual city, with various services and businesses that you don't often find in smaller towns, we made the command decision to rent a Uhaul to get us and our bikes over the mountains and into Denver, and that's just what we did!

We enjoyed a couple of very good, albeit brief, visits with Tony & Terry Chukes along with their 3 lovely daughters.  Tony is one of my oldest and dearest friends in the church.  We both remember the day that we met as if it was yesterday and not more than 30 years.  We also got to visit with Kenny & Karla Jacobs.  Kenny sang in my wedding, and Karla used to watch Riley when he was an infant.  Their daughter Aubry was the most adorable 5 year old imaginable, and has turned into a charming and beautiful college graduate!  The big surprise was that my friend Donald Foucar, whom I have know for 40 or more years, was in Albequerque at the time and was due to head back to Great Falls MT when he saw (on facebook, I believe) that I might be in Denver.  He got in touch with me, and we were able to meet him and have dinner together as well.

We dropped off the Uhaul in Pueblo Colorado, and it has been back to sweating our butts off.  It has been out of the frying pan, and into the fire, almost literally.  We haven't been terribly affected by the Colorado fires, but the weather has been hot, hot, hot!

Well, the laundry is almost done, I'm hungry, and there is a swimming pool calling - tonight is Aqua Zumba!  If I even try to get started with anything else that is new, then I'll go on and on, and once again nothing will get posted.

More updates soon, I hope.

Dale