Livingston, AL

7.26.2010

Today was pretty much a day off. We rode about 40 or so miles with an easy rack point. This morning we got to sleep in ‘til 6:15, and had breakfast at McDonalds. We were done the day by 11:00, and we’ve been hanging out at the dorms here at Western Alabama university since. It’s nice to just relax, get cleaned up, and soak up the WiFi.

We had pulled pork and mashed potatoes for dinner. I was sitting at a table with Chris, Troy, and Rich and we were swapping some “Tool of the Week” stories. Each week at chapter, our chapter goes around and tells funny stories about members of the house, and the person involved in the funniest story is the “Tool of the Week”. It was cool to hear other chapter’s twists on this tradition. The stories we shared were hilarious, but their details are not fitting to reprint here.

As we headed home it started to rain. Then it started to pour. We had been blasting music with the windows down, and we decided to keep them that way. We were getting soaked in the car, but it was kinda like one of those foam party raves. We continued our dancing shenanigans when we pulled into the parking lot too, until we were all thoroughly wet and tired. Then, we pulled some of the rain tarps out of the vans, laid them down on a hill, and made an impromptu slip n slide. That went on for about 20 minutes, until a bit of a disciplinary snafu left about 8 of us racked for the next 2 days. Again, the details are probably not fit to reprint here.

It was kind of a downer to end the day on, but at least I’ll have some company in the vans until we get to Birmingham…

Meridian, MS

7.25.2010

The ride today flew by. It was about 95 miles, but it was nicely broken up by a sponsored breakfast and a crew chief lunch. We hopped on our bikes in Jackson, and rode about 20 miles to a sponsor’s home for a breakfast of cheese grits and donuts with fresh fruit. When we got back on the road, we had plenty of time to make rack point, smooth roads, and a belly full of southern happiness.

I rode with a couple guys I haven’t normally been riding with, and learned some pretty cool stuff about them. We talked about whether it’s better to have a type A or type B personality, the 10 dimensions of string theory, and whether we could be happy if we never got married. I heard some pretty cool answers, and it made the miles whiz by.

When we got to lodging we got showered up and walked over to the cafeteria for dinner. There we were met by a bunch of moms and grandmoms who had each made a home cooked dish for us. I can’t even list everything that they had here, but we left absolutely stuffed. Definitely one of the best meals so far.

Jackson, MS

7.24.2010

Today’s 45 mile ride was pretty cool because we got to do it with one of the crew members, Joe Hayman. Joe hopped on Mike Hurvey’s bike, while Mike took over Joe’s van. It’s a lot to fun to ride with crew members, because we’ve already gotten to know each other so well. Joe was struggling for a bit, but he pushed it himself to finish the day. He even rode with us for our arrival at the city capitol, where the mayor gave a speech and dedicated today as Push America day.

From the capitol we rode in a parade to a friendship visit / carnival. There was a dunk tank, cotton candy, snow cones, and live music. We spent the afternoon stuffing our faces and socializing with some people with disabilities who had come to hang out. Two of these people had ridden with us in the parade, using bikes with a hand cranks. They told me that they both lost use of their legs in car accidents, but that they still found ways to keep active. The one guy plays on the Mississippi Magic wheelchair basketball team.

After we got to lodging and unloaded our stuff, we headed over for an awesome dinner at Mugshots, home of the best burger in Mississippi. Dinner was sponsored by the local Pi Kapp chapter, and we went to McDonalds to get McFlurries for dessert.

We’ve got an armed guard for our lodging tonight… It’s a nice neighborhood.

Vicksburg, MS

7.23.2010

Today’s ride was the flat part of Louisiana that I’d been missing out on yesterday. It might have been the easiest 70 miles we’ve had. About 10 miles in, the stereotypical Louisiana roads disappeared and we had smooth pavement the whole rest of the way. One of the things that we did to keep ourselves entertained was a sport called corn diving. Essentially you ride your bike into a corn field, jump off and let the corn catch you. Sounds kinda strange, but it’s a good time when you’ve been in the saddle for 5 hours.

Today I also completed the Gear Up Louisiana challenge. I made it all the way across Louisiana in one gear ratio. I’m pretty happy to be able to use my transmission again. One guy is going to try to make it all the way to D.C. in the Louisiana gear that he picked. James is kind of a freak though.

The best part of the ride was when we crossed the state line into Mississippi. The Mississippi river is one of those things that you can pick out on a map from elementary school. Going across that bridge reminded me of the one we crossed in San Fran, and thinking about how far we had come was so powerful. It was definitely one of the best moments of the trip. The only problem is that the state lines are coming too quickly now. I keep telling myself to make the days count, not to count the days.

Monroe, LS

7.22.2010

Louisiana is by no means flat. Today we rode 120 miles (with a 5 mile detour) from Shravenport to Monroe. There was no point during the day where I was thinking, “Boy, Louisiana sure is flat”. My mind was mostly preoccupied with how beat up and broken the roads were and what exactly had happened in the movie we had watched last night: Inception. We literally rode the entire day with a crack in the road three inches wide to our left, and frequent bumps in the road where tree roots had grown under the asphalt. The ride was definitely one of our more challenging days, and the fact that the heat climbed to triple digits in the afternoon was not helping our situation. Never the less I was able to remain in the same gear ratio I had chosen before for the whole day, although I was exhausted when we finally got to lodging.

Oh. And I joined pace line New Mexico... But I did it without a van to help me out.

Our lunch was an awesome subway spread sponsored by the local Pi Kappa Phi chapter. From lunch onward, a few of their chapter’s Pi Alphas joined us and commiserated about the quality of Louisiana’s roads. For dinner, we had a friendship visit at an organization that exists to help people with disabilities live completely on their own. These people hold their own jobs, pay their own bills and buy their own groceries. The best part about dinner though is that I was able to sample some local Louisiana cuisine. Alligator that is. They mixed up the alligator meat in a tasty jumbiliah and served it with salad and home-made ice cream. They showed us a picture of the animal it came from, which had been killed by a woman’s son in the lake behind their house. The reptile was 12 feet long, and was hoisted into the air with a fork lift. She said she still had plenty of leftovers in her fridge, and that they sent the beast in to a taxidermist to be stuffed. Not quite sure what kind of home décor you can make with that.

After dinner, we made a quick Wal-Mart run, where I picked up some much needed soap and a new camera. Now my blog can be colorful again!

Shravenport, LS

7.21.2010

As I explained before, I was very fortunate to be able to ride today. I was pretty tired from the night before, but I ate like 15 coffee beans set out next to the fruit and soon I was feeling fine. Today’s ride was a little different because one of the crew members, Steve Wilkerson, was riding along with us. He traded places for a day with the only other Asian on the team, Mike Hang. Mike drove the van and Steve rode Mike’s bike.

The great thing about this, other than the fact that we got to rag on Steve all day for being “out of shape”, was that Mike was able to come up with fun stuff to do at his crew stop. There was a point where about 3 pace lines pulled up to his van, and he brought out a cooler full of water balloons for us to cool down with. Everyone grabbed 3 or 4 balloons and the mayhem began. The best part was when I threw one lucky shot that hit Steve in the back of the head from about 15 yards away. Omar caught it on film, and as soon as he gives me the picture I’ll post it here for you.

Later in the day we crossed the state line into Louisiana, and began one of the south route’s infamous challenges. Apparently the state of Louisiana is pretty flat the whole time, and it’s rumored that you can do the whole trip across without shifting gears. We have 2 more days before we cross into Mississippi, so hopefully I’ll be able to maintain the same gear ratio that I picked when I left Texas today. I think I made a pretty good choice, so we’ll see how this goes.

Longview, TX

7.20.2010

Today sent my emotions for a loop from the very beginning. My room woke up in the morning to a call from our project manager, about an hour after we were supposed to be up. Not a single person in the room, myself included, had decided to set an alarm for the morning. Each of us had just assumed that one of the other two would set one. We were even staying in a hotel, so getting up would have been as easy as scheduling a wake up call. There was a police departure that morning, and there was no more time to spare. The three of us ended up being racked for the whole day.

I was really upset that I was missing out on a 100 mile day. By the time we had everything together and ready to go, the police escort was still preparing to leave, so I thought we would have had time to make it. Sitting in the van for a while I was able to calm down, and caught up on some reading as I sat around in my new cowboy hat. When the first pace line had come through, Matt told us about the salt challenge, where the game is to eat a spoonful of salt without ralphing all over the side of the road. The fact that there was a challenge made me pretty excited, but the fact that my stomach tried to strangle me from the inside after I had finished my spoonful brought me back to a pretty solid level of unhappiness.

I then continued on with my bizarre day. When we were about 45 or 50 miles out into the day, we received a call from the crew chief that Brent, one of my unfortunate roommates this morning, had left his bag back at the last hotel. Our van, Matt Adam, Brent Freeman, and myself, had to turn around and go get it. This meant that we were going to miss out on the sponsored lunch, and that we wouldn’t be able talk to the other cyclists on the road for the rest of the day. I had succeeded in becoming pissed again.

As we were driving back, I recalled a thought that had occurred to me earlier that day, a challenge designed specifically for people driving the vans. The challenge is called the “Hot Box Challenge”, where you roll up the van’s windows, and turn the heat in the car on to full blast. The goal is to make it from point A to point B while riding in your own personal oven. I suggested we start the challenge when we got back to the last hotel, but Matt suggested we start right then and there. We cranked the heat and started heading back. At one point, we had to pull over to the side and fish some ice out of the cooler to make an ice pack. This was not because we were overheating, but instead because Brent and Matt’s iphones were displaying a “Heat Warning” message, and needed to be cooled down. We later went online to discover that this message is displayed when the phone’s temperature reaches 115°F.

Doing the challenge made me feel like I was on the bike again, looking for a fun way to pass the time, and I was once again in a good mood. Brent added to the happiness by buying us both Sonic for lunch. We continued back down the road once we picked up the missing bag, distracting ourselves from the heat and driving by playing the alphabet road sign game. The object of the game is to work yourself from A to Z with letters you find on street signs. Brent and I came down to a head to head search for Z in both games… and he won by a split second both times. When we finally arrived at our new lodging, we had ridden 150 miles with the Hot Box Challenge, and we were glorious sweaty heroes. It definitely was not the experience I thought it would have been when I found out I was racked that morning. We made it fun.

When we got to lodging I took my bike down off the rack but was unable to find the bike’s front wheel. I checked and double checked all the vans, but it was no where to be found. Low and behold, we called the hotel that we had JUST DRIVEN BACK TO and found out that they had it there. I was beyond any type of upset I’d ever felt before. If only I had set my alarm properly, If only I had realized it was missing sooner, none of this would have happened. The crew vans were not authorized to make another trip of that length, so the hotel told me that they would be able to ship it to me in about two to three days…which meant that I would have been racked for another two to three days. Also, when I was making the phone call to the hotel, a wasp flew up my pants and stung me in the leg. I was in such a bad mood that I could barely enjoy the biggest and tastiest steak dinner that I will probably have in my life.

I was able to calm down again, coming to terms with the fact that I would probably be racked for an extended period of time. That was when the most epic display of broness ever demonstrated occurred. A friend of Mo Awadalla’s, Allen, heard my story and offered to drive me the 200 miles there and back at 9:00 that night. I knew there was no way that I would be able to make curfew, but getting racked for one day seemed better than getting racked for 3 so we went for it. The conversation with Allen was awesome. We talked about the trip, his chapter of Pi Kapp, movies, college, everything. It was so awesome that this complete stranger was able to help me out so much. We got the wheel, headed back to the new hotel, and stopped for some late night tacos while he explained to me the greatness of Tex Mex purchased in Texas. I snuck in under the radar at 1:00am, an hour late. I don’t know if Todd just felt sorry for me, or just never found out, but I was able to ride the next day into Louisiana. And I remembered to wake up this time.

Terrell, TX

7.19.2010

Today we had another easy ride. It was about 50 miles from Dallas to Terrell, and the biggest problem we ran into was that we hit so many red lights. It was really hard to keep our momentum going when we had to stop every half mile to wait for a traffic signal to change. We arrived at the Super 8 Motel around 12:00, where we showered up and headed out to lunch. It was Chicken Fried Steak again, with good old southern sweet tea. I capitalize Chicken Fried Steak because as far as I’m concerned it’s worthy of being considered a proper noun.

After lunch we hung around the hotel for a bit, enjoying the wifi, before we headed over to the State Hospital for dinner. We hung out with a bunch of kids who had had some emotional problems in the past and were in the midst of a rehabilitation at the hospital. I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I was going in, but I had a really great time talking to the patients.

The only bad thing about the day is that at 12:03 PM I had to pronounce my camera officially dead. She lived to the ripe old age of 7 years, and fought til the very end, but I knew that she was slipping away for the past couple days. I’m taking comfort in the fact that I’ll always have the memories we’ve shared together, saved and cataloged in a digital format on my hard drive.

Unfortunately this means that I have no pictures from the past two days. On the other hand, the past two days have taken place in eastern Texas, where there’s not much to look at anyway.

Dallas, TX

7.19.2010

Today we had what was probably the easiest ride of the trip. We went from Ft. Worth to Dallas, along part of the route we had done the day before on our way to Arlington. We literally never left the city the entire ride, it was urban from point A to point B. I had fun listening to some of the southern boys talking about the “hood” we were riding through. Clearly these guys have never been to Camden.

I decided to make the day a little more interesting by trying my luck at the “No Unclipping Challenge” once again. Today actually might have been one of the hardest days to complete it, because every 100 yards we found ourselves at a red light. I was more successful this time, I’m getting a lot better at the track stand.

The whole day was like an extra day off. We got to our lodging really early, and we had no friendship visit today. All we could do was eat blueberries and watch movies. When we got around to dinner, though, there was an extra surprise. The ride along, Randy Stillinger, treated us not only to dinner but a round of Whirlyball. This game is possibly the coolest one ever invented. Imagine combining lacrosse with basketball with BUMPER CARS! You tool around in these custom bumper cars and try to fling a whiffle ball at a target on the back of a basketball backboard. The rounds are 10 minutes long, and whoever scores the most hits at the end wins. The best part is that the arena was rigged with a PA system, and you could go up in a viewing booth and serve as an announcer for the games. Instead of commentating, it turned mainly into busting on the person who was holding the ball at that moment, calling up inside jokes from earlier in the trip. It was such a sweet game, I’ll have to try to find one somewhere on the east coast.

Once we got back, Omar and I had some energy left over to beat Mike Hurvey and John Chinn in foosball. Word.

Ft. Worth, TX

7.17.2010

Today is the end of our day off in Ft. Worth, so I decided to make one post for these two days. Yesterday’s ride was pretty simple and was about 80 miles by the end of the day. First we rode into downtown Ft. Worth where we had lunch at chipotle, and hopped back on the bikes to ride another 10 miles to our friendship visit in Arlington. There we had dinner, and played wheelchair basketball against the current NCAA champions, the UTA Movin’ Mavs. We got beat pretty bad, as we sort of expected to, but it was a bunch of fun while it lasted. The final score was 77 to 8, and that was even when they let us play 6 vs. 5.


This morning we woke up at 7:00AM and had a continental breakfast provided by some Pi Alphas. We spent most of the day running errands. We went to the bike shop, to Wal-Mart, and later in the day we went to the Fort Worth Stockyards. The stockyards are like a western themed strip mall, where you could buy all sorts of cowboy stuff. I decided to get a pair of boots made by Tony Lama with green tops. They were pretty expensive, so I sought out and purchased the cheapest cowboy hat in the store to go along with it.

From there we went to dinner at a big family style Mexican restaurant called Joe T. Garcia’s. I got the enchilada platter, which came with rice, tacos, nachos and salsa, and refried beans. From there we headed over to the local pool where we swam until they kicked us out. This pool was a 5 year old’s dream come true. There was a big pirate ship with working water cannons, those cool waterfall mushrooms, two springboards and two HUGE tube slides. Needless to say this was right up our alley, and we had a blast horsing around and flirting with the lifeguards.

Super short ride tomorrow, but I’m gonna try to actually get 8 hours tonight. We’ll see how that works out.

Stephenville, TX

7.15.2010

Today we had a pretty awesome ride from Abilene, a total of about 110 miles. The temperatures and winds were kind in the morning, but the pavement was miserable. Fortunately a bunch of Pi Alphas were sponsoring lunch, and cooked us some brots with sauerkraut by the side of the road to lift our spirits. Towards the end of the ride we ran into a nice family who flagged us down and gave us some freshly picked peaches from their fields. The day had started looking up.

Then we got to the DOCTOR PEPPER FACTORY! I was like a kid in a Dr. Pepper store. The owner said that we could sample anything they had in their cooler. Everything was made with real cane sugar, and came in glass bottles. I went on to sample a Frosty Pepper, which essentially was a vanilla frosty that tasted like Dr. Pepper. It tasted like malted happiness. I purchased a choice Dr. Pepper hat to commemorate the occasion.

We’re headed into Fort Worth tomorrow to catch our first day off in a week. Hopefully we’ll get to that boot shop.

Abeline, TX

7.14.2010

Today was another one of those impossible rack points. We had 2 friendship visits today, and we had to get ourselves 75 miles in about 4 hours. We started out the day at about 6:30AM, as soon as the sun was up. We wanted to get ourselves as far as we could in the time we were given, so I set my ipod to techno only and we started cruising.

We were doing pretty well, averaging 19 miles per hour with small uphills and downhills. At one point I looked down at the clock, and realized that if we kept the same pace, we would be able to make the rack point. Right around mile 65, however, we ran into a serious headwind, and we were struggling to keep the pace at 16 miles per hour. It was a real slap in the face now that we had gotten our hopes up, and everyone was exhausted. When 10:30 AM rolled around we could make out the shape of a crew van ahead. We pushed a little harder and pulled into the rack point at 10:42 AM, only 3 minutes late. We had made it.


After that struggle the push to the end of the day seemed like nothing, even though the headwind persisted. The friendship visit was amazing. We started off at a meet and greet where they served brisket, beans, potato salad, and fruit and stuck around to visit with the program’s participants for a while. The barbeque sauce, chili, and gravy were all made by the clients of the community center. They even handed some of the guys home-made mint soap on the way out.

Half the team left this visit early, hopped on their bikes and faced a headwind for another 6 miles to get to the second friendship visit. The ride was worth it though, because we were greeted with a country style dance. There I met one of the participants, a girl named Whitney, who let me keep a drawing that she had made for the Journey of Hope cyclists. Before we left she hit me up for my phone number, and said she would text me after I had finished my trip. Guess I’ve still got it!

I was exhausted from today’s ride, but I still had time to team up with Ryan Dodge to take down Mike Hang and Brian Swingler in an epic foosball battle.

Scurry, TX

7.13.2010

Those little bloodsuckers were at us again this morning, and this time we were out of bug spray. Needles to say we got started on the road pretty quickly so that we could escape them. The ride from Lubbock was about 95 miles, and we had to arrive at our friendship visit by 2:00pm. We were making pretty good pace, but before we knew it we were falling behind due to a few unfortunate flats. In the final hour, we still had 20 miles to go and we ran into a nice little headwind.

We were about 8 miles out with a half hour to go, and we took our exit off of the interstate. Unfortunately there was a mix up with directions, and we ended up going about 2 miles down the road in the wrong direction. A crew van caught up with us and told us to turn around back to the exit. When we got back there was a van that was waiting for us. We were sure that he was going to pull down the racks, but he did something even more disheartening. He said that there was yet another mix up, and that we were going the right way all along. We begrudgingly turned back into the headwind, and busted our asses to get back to where we just were. It might be that the crew felt bad for us, but they let us ride all the way into town, and we arrived at our visit about 30 minutes late. The only positive is that we got to ride the whole day, and that the detour bumped it up to a full century.

At the friendship visit I was talking with a girl named Rebecca. She was a lot of fun to talk to, and she was the first person I’ve met to use my name in conversation and ask questions about my life. We talked about her favorite TV show, Arthur, what it’s like to be from Texas, and a bit about her family too. When it was time to go, we headed over to the local Ladies Club, where we had dinner with the Mayor. We had something called Chicken Fried Steak, a dish I’ve never experienced in my Yankee life. It’s essentially a big fried chicken patty, served with mashed potatoes and white gravy. For dessert they had an assortment of fruits with fruit dip, and a delicious pineapple upside down cake. It was absolutely phenomenal. Texas has been the best eating by far on the trip.

This is what my gloves did to the water when I washed them. It's amazing what you pick up in one day.

Lubbock, TX

7.12.2010

Today we had another pretty simple ride. It was about 75 miles over awesomely flat terrain. The roads got to be a little bit worn at times, but it didn’t slow us down too much. I didn’t listen to music at all today because we were too busy talking about our lives. There were 5 men in our pace line, and we rode the whole day in the formation of the five dots on the five side of a die. The person in the middle would take over telling a funny or embarrassing story about themselves or something they’ve experienced, and we would cycle (pun completely intended) in and out of the center position when telling our tales. The day flew by like nothing.

Later in the day, Nick Breaux jumped in the mud on a dare.

We got to our destination, and had some free time to head over to the bike shop before our friendship visit. I was able to get the spoke on my back wheel replaced so that my wheel would be true again. It was a good thing we got to a bike shop today, because I had already ridden about 200 miles on it since it broke, and it probably wasn’t doing my rims any good. While I was there, I also bought a new bite valve for my camelbak to replace the one that fell off along the road to Roswell.

The friendship visit was great. All of the participants and volunteers were very interactive with us, and it was easy to make conversation. They had a jungle gym over by one side of the facilities, so we spent some time goofing off over there. We were playing games on the swings, balancing on railings, and climbing all over stuff. I felt like I was 10 again. The only downside was that there were swarms of mosquitoes. I learned that the sayings were true about everything being bigger in Texas. These buggers were straight out of Jurassic Park. Also, I had my second encounter with fire ants when I accidentally left my flip flops on top of their colony. Fortunately for us though the dinner portions are also bigger in Texas, which sort of makes up for the state’s gargantuan insects.

Muleshoe, TX

7.11.2010

Today we had a ride of about 55 miles from Portales, NM to Muleshoe, TX. We crossed a state line and another time zone. We’ve left the land of enchantment, and entered the land of steak dinners and cows. The ENTIRE ride today reeked of cows and manure, and it was the second day of the trip that was completely flat. Being over the continental divide is awesome.

Today Troy Hoffman and I made the ride a little bit more challenging by electing to remain standing on our bikes for the entire day. We never sat down in the saddle, and stayed in our biggest gears for most of the day. We were pushing at around 20 - 22 mph the whole day and our legs were burning at the end. It was worth it though to complete another fun challenge.

Not much to say today. It was a pretty short ride, and there was no friendship visit, but hey I’m almost back to the Eastern Time Zone!

Portales, NM

7.10.2010

Today’s ride was just awesome, plain and simple. It was a day of challenges. It was not necessarily challenges from the terrain, but instead challenges that we set for ourselves. We had to go a total of 95 miles today, from Roswell, NM to Portales, NM. It was flat, and there was pretty minimal wind the whole day, with a slight tailwind later in the afternoon, which made for pretty easy riding. We averaged between 19 and 20 miles per hour the whole day.

The way that we kept ourselves entertained was by setting personal challenges. For instance, I vowed that I would never take my feet off of the pedals for the entire day. This meant that at stop signs and red lights, I would have to balance and remain almost stationary. At crew stops and lunch I would lean on the vans, and if someone got a flat, I would do my best to keep my feet from touching the ground until it was repaired. I had gotten by doing all of these things for about 81 miles, until I got to the rack point and messed everything up. I had passed the van and was circling back around so that I would be able to lean back on it, when I slipped off my right pedal and fell over. That was the end of my challenge, and I was really bummed. I’ll just have to save that test for another day I guess, maybe I’ll try it when we get to Texas on one of the century days.

Some of the other challenges our paceline tried to perform were the no hands mile, the rumble strip mile, and relieving oneself while riding. These kinds of games kept us entertained the whole day. We actually had to stop to repair Mike Hurvey’s bike after he had ridden on the rumble strips for a mile. I think tomorrow he and I are going to try the no sitting down challenge, where we stand up on the bike for the whole day. Fortunately it’s only a 50 mile ride.

It’s great that I’m getting in good enough shape that I can focus on having fun on the bike rather than the difficulty of the endeavor.

Roswell, NM

7.9.2010

Today was our second day in Roswell. We got to wake up at 9:00AM, had an awesome breakfast at McDonalds (2 Egg Mc Muffins, 2 breakfast burritos, 1 hash brown, and an orange juice), and went to visit the international UFO museum and research center. Apparently in the 1940s, Roswell was the site of an alleged spacecraft landing and government cover-up. The whole museum was dedicated to telling the story. The people in the gift shop were the strangest people I’ve ever met, and I’ve attended school in Ithaca, NY for 2 years.

Later we had a friendship visit with the same organization that sponsored our arrival lunch, Tobosa Developmental Services. It was nice to see the same faces for a second day, when so far on the trip we’ve had to say our goodbyes after only a brief encounter. I said hi to Pat again, but spent most of the day talking to a woman named Margot, and her husband who was also a participant in the program. He was telling stories about hunting and fishing, while Margot was talking about her laundry and cleaning job for the united states border patrol. It was a great day for a barbecue, sunny and warm, and I may have had the best potato salad I’ve had in my life.

Now we’re back and getting ready for an early bedtime. Hitting the road hard again tomorrow with a solid 95 mile ride.

Roswell, NM

7.8.2010

Today’s ride was a total blast. We rode 95 miles from Carrizozo, NM to Roswell, NM after having a hearty breakfast provided by the First Baptist Church of Carrizozo. The first 10 miles took us nearly an hour. We had to climb out of the valley and were facing a tough headwind for the entire climb. After we reached the top though, the rest of the day was fantastic. It was essentially downhill for the remaining 80 miles, and we were cruising at speeds around 25mph for most of the day, even with the headwind. Our paceline was just goofing off the entire day, cruising to some sweet tunes, wasting time at crew stops, eating apple strudel, and generally being merry. We ended up cutting rack point pretty close, making it by about 5 minutes.

The weather today was great. The skies were overcast, which kept the temperature nice and low, and we even got a refreshing bit of rain for a couple miles. It was the first time it has rained while we were riding so far on the trip. We had an arrival at the local community center once we got to Roswell, and it was probably the most dangerous thing we’ve done on the trip. There was no police escort, so the vans were responsible for blocking off traffic and lanes of the highway, without any real authority to do so. Fortunately we the ride to the community center was short, and we were only obstructing traffic briefly.

We were greeted at the community center with fresh oranges, apples and grapes. I spent some time talking with the residents, all of whom were very highly functioning. Apparently this center specializes in preparing people with disabilities to live on their own and work at their own jobs. I was talking with a guy named Pat who was telling me all about his exploits as a real cowboy. Not only was he able to ride a horse, but he was able to rope and hogtie cattle. It was really quite amazing to hear him talk about it.

After the friendship visit, the pain started. The ride today was not that difficult, as I had said it was mostly downhill. Unfortunately when we got to lodging we found that there was no electricity or running water and that we would have to wait around in our stinky jerseys until everything could get running again. As I was waiting outside, I had my first experience with fire ants. I was standing outside in my socks when I started to feel some pain in my ankle. I looked down to find my foot over top of an ant colony, with little red soldiers sticking their pincers into my legs. The most unpleasant experience of the day, however, was when the team went to go see “The Last Airbender” in theaters. Save for some cool CGI fights, the movie was rendered worthless by poor acting and a corny script. I’m very ready for bed.

Carrizozo, NM

7.7.2010

Today’s ride was just frustrating. When we woke up this morning we were expecting an easy ride after yesterday’s marathon. What we found is that we had the hardest rack point we’ve had the whole trip. Our goal was to make 57 of the 80 miles by 10:00 AM. Also, today was my turn to be sweeper, which meant I had to be the last man in. This meant that for me to make the rack point, every single other person also had to make the rack point. James Lawrence, the other sweeper, and I left the parking lot at 6:45AM, which meant we had to keep an average pace of 19 to 20 mph the whole day in order to make the rack point … as would everyone else.

We were doing well for a little bit, and we came up on the first group with a flat just as they were getting it fixed up. Fortunately we didn’t lose very much time here. The next flat we came across we were stopped for a little longer, and our hopes of making the rack point were jeopardized. After they got fixed up we started out again, pushing a pretty good pace. Then we caught up with one of the slower pace lines. James and I had to stay with them, but the two guys we were with were able to continue on ahead. We were cruising on at about 13 miles per hour, and it became pretty clear that we were going to get racked. When Nick’s van pulled up, all we could do was get in and hope that at least some of the guys had pushed it to mile 57 fast enough.

As it turned out, nobody was able to make rack point. When we staged up for arrival, everyone was pretty bummed. There was talk about how we should have woken up earlier, how we should have distributed the people in pace lines, and the general crappiness of the demanding rack point. The arrival into town was my least favorite for that reason, but soon we arrived at our Friendship visit and things started looking up.

They had piles of food waiting for us. There was roast beef, sausage, pork, baked beans, pasta salad, watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple and all sorts of goodies. I was talking with a woman named Joy who had just got back from placing 3rd at the Albuquerque Special Olympics in golf. She was bragging about how she even beat all of the boys. After lunch, the residents went about their normal business (Joy was going to get her hair cut), and we went to the back room to relax. There they had a bunch of postage paid postcards where we could write to our families, some stand up comedy playing on the television, and FOOT AND BACK MASSAGES. The line for the back massage was pretty long, but I was able to get a foot rub in before we had to head to lodging.

When we started to walk the block and a half to the local high school, we were met with the first rain of the trip. It was sort of refreshing in the heat of the afternoon, and reminded me a bit of Ithaca. I’m lying inside now on my warm air mattress after having showered up, and we’re getting ready to head to dinner. Hopefully tomorrow won’t be quite as harsh as today was.

Just got back from dinner. A woman brought over her domesticated skunks for us to pet. That is all.

Socarro, NM

7.6.2010

I feel like this is the last time I’ll be able to play the “Hardest thing I’ve ever done” card, because I don’t think we’ll see a day on the rest of the trip that is quite as tough as today was. We rode 133 miles from Reserve, NM to Socarro, NM. Not only was it the longest day of the entire trip, but we also climbed over the continental divide, and faced 50 miles of direct headwind on the flats. Fortunately for our legs we did not have any programming today, so we could focus on the physical task of getting from point A to point B.

Our day started with a 4:30 AM wake up, but our bodies had not made the transition from Pacific to Mountain time, so it felt like it was 3:30. We peeked outside the hotel room and it was black. We hadn’t accounted for the sunrise with our early wake up, and we were not able to start on time due to darkness. We were finally done with breakfast and on the road by 6:30 AM.

The first challenge we faced was the cold. When we rolled out the temperature was hanging around 45 degrees, and stayed that way for the first 10 to 15 miles. As we were riding in the cold we also got our first taste of the day’s wildlife when two deer jumped out in front of our pace line and almost caused us to wreck. We were the lead pace line throughout the day, which meant we got to see all of the animals before they got scared away. We saw a herd of antelope, and one was even running alongside us for a while. It was something straight out of the lion king. With the mountains and parries all around, blue skies and big fluffy clouds, here was this animal running with us about 30 yards away. It was so surreal. After that we rode past some green pastures with cows and horses, and we even saw a herd of wild horses later in the day.

As the day went on, we found ourselves climbing over the continental divide, and finally clearing the dreaded rocky mountains. We stopped to take pictures, and as Ryan Larson noted, “As far as I’m concerned this is half way across the country”. The scenery was gorgeous the whole day, but we started appreciating it less when the headwinds picked up after lunch. We had lunch outside the Very Large Array radio telescope station, made famous in the movie “Contact”. While we were sitting there the winds picked up, and completing the remaining 55 miles became more of a challenge. We were pushing to keep the pace at 12 miles per hour, which meant not only that we were tired but that we had to spend even longer on the bike.

We passed the time by convincing ourselves that each hilltop would lead to a big downhill, and that each passing city was our destination. Needless to say we were repeatedly setting ourselves up for heartbreak, but it was kind of funny to laugh at our own desperate optimism. We finally reached the downhill on the way to Socarro, after passing through a town we were SURE was the end of the road, and over 4 or 5 supposed hilltops. Here we were met with more headwind, and we were cruising downhill at a sluggish 19 miles per hour. When we were finally able to see the city of Socarro, I was so happy. I was just reflecting on all of the things we had seen today, and how far we had just come. It was pure bliss. I doubt I’ll be that happy to see the capitol building in D.C. at the end of the trip.

Reserve, NM

7.5.2010

Today we rode about 110 miles from Lakeside, AZ and crossed over into New Mexico. The state’s motto is, I’m not kidding, “The land of enchantment”. We’re staying in a small hotel outside the town in a baller hotel room. The ride today was just as scenic as the past couple days, as we passed though mountain passes, rolling parries and along the coasts of some lakes. The beginning of the day went by crazy fast, especially after our tough climbs yesterday. We had covered about 45 miles by 10:00. The temperature hung around a cool 80 degrees for most of the day, which was nice because we were out in the saddle for pretty much the whole day.

The reason it took us so long to finish was because around mile 65 my back tire exploded. I mean this in every sense of the word. We were cruising along the edge of a mountain lake at about 22-23 miles per hour when I heard a bang. I thought somebody had run over a soda can or something, but it turned out to be my back tire blowing out. James Lawrence was behind me in the paceline and said there was white smoke spewing out in circles as my shredded tire went around. I pulled over to the side to inspect the damage, and found an inch long slit in the outside of my tire and my thorn proof tube shredded on the inside. I am absolutely baffled about what could have caused this flat. I must have hit something, but it seemed that the road was completely smooth where we were riding. We had to wait until one of the crew vans passed by so I could make the repairs. One of the other cyclists, Omar Espinosa, was racked due to mechanical bike issues, and I was able to use his tire to finish out the ride. Later when we met up with some of the other riders, Ryan Jepson said he had heard the pop too, and he was about 50 yards ahead of our group. Fortunately nobody was hurt, and I still have the tire as a souvenir.


After that incident we continued on for a while problem free until a bit of a demoralizing climb right before lodging. We were crawling uphill at about 5 miles per hour because someone in our paceline was having knee issues. Slowly but surely we made it to the top, and were welcomed with a buffet dinner at our motel.


Tomorrow we have a 130 mile ride. Oh lord. That means it’s time for bed. I lost an hour today when we crossed our first time zone.