Wednesday, July 23

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Today we rode 86 miles from Dinosaur, CO to Craig, CO. I (Eric) left at 7:45 am and arrived in camp at 1:45 pm. Boy oh boy, was it ever good to get into camp early. I stopped only for pit stops and water. I surprised myself by riding on a banana, apple, and some grapes all day, but I devoured my lunch once I got to camp. Yesterday we took an hour break to eat our sack lunches in a McDonald’s. I think that let my body cool down a little to much because my legs felt like concrete after that. May it was because we ate so much at one time for lunch too that did me in.
Prairie dogs popped up along the road today. This part of US-40 had much more of a shoulder than yesterday so we were not literally inches from death like we were yesterday due to the big semi trucks just grazing by. Although, I was chased down by a big tractor which could only go 24 mph, but I could keep that pace so he eventually passed me. I wish I could have stayed with him to keep his draft, but no go there.
The whole route today was like a hilly roller coaster, so much fun. It is such a rush going 40 mph downhill when after only climbing at 5 mph uphill.
We are at a school again so we actually have decent showers again. What a convenience that we have got so used to at schools in being able to use their locker room showers!
Craig is a big city compared to Dinosaur. The view was gorgeous riding in – mountains in the distance with what looked like rain falling on them. So far Colorado has been all mountains. It is nice to have that rolling variety verses just flat land. From a local I heard that tomorrow will be another tough day because we have quite a steep pass to climb. We are all getting stronger physically and mentally though. I think I can say that I like these 90 mile days better than the only 40 or so mile days that we started with. You feel like you have accomplished something and you aren’t looking for things to do with a long afternoon in camp. Although that dead time can be nice at times too.
Phew. The honey wagon that travels with us just pulled up. It gives off quite a stench, just a reality of the every day road travel.
I rode pretty much alone all day today. In a way that was nice because then you are not so vigilant on staring at somebody’s back tire in a pace line and you can enjoy the surrounding scenery a little more. Today was the day for that. Well, almost everyday is I guess. We woke up at 6 am and left a little earlier today, 7:45 am, which gave us a little more cool to ride in. That is priceless. Today we hit 100 degrees on our bike computers as usual. Ride on!